Beyond The Veil
by Parsec
Summary: [PpGEternal Darkness crossover] [Warning: Rated R for graphic content!] The professor has disappeared, but his journal leads the girls to discover the details of an ancient struggle...
1. Chapter 1

[NOTE: This story is based after the storyline in the Gamecube game, "Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem". I'll try to explain as many elements in the fic as I can for the benefit of those who haven't actually played the game, but it will probably make more sense if you _have _played it. ALSO NOTE: Parts of the story will be fairly graphic, though mostly later on.]

**__**

Beyond the Veil

By: Mark J. Hadley

****

CHAPTER 1

The City of Townsville...and as school came to a close for the Powerpuff Girls, they headed to make a stop home, as they customarily did before beginning their standard patrols of the city. Each day, Professor Utonium would greet them at the door with a smile, and ask them about their day. After spending the first portion of the day at school, it was always a welcome sight.

Today was different, though. As the girls arrived home, the professor was not waiting for them as he usually did. Bubbles noticed this as they approached the front door and blinked a few times. "Where is he?" she asked.

"He probably just headed out," Blossom said, pointing at the driveway. "Look, see? The car's gone. Let's just go out on patrol; we'll catch him when we get back."

"Yes, but I wanted to show him the drawing I made today!" Bubbles protested. "Can't we just wait for him?"

Buttercup shook her head, "I just sat through a long and _boring_ day of school, and right now I just feel like beating up some bad guys. You can stay if you want, but I'm going."

"Go ahead," Bubbles said. "I'll catch up later, okay?"

"Okay," Blossom nodded, and motioned for Buttercup to follow. The two of them started to fly back towards Townsville, while Bubbles headed inside.

Neither of them made it very far, because in the next moment, Bubbles called out, "_GIRLS!_" Blossom and Buttercup stopped in their tracks, and quickly returned to the house to see what the matter was. As they flew down next to Bubbles, they stared inside and gasped. From what they saw, it looked like everything in the house had been ransacked. Chairs and bookcases were knocked over, furniture torn up, pictures hanging crookedly on the wall...for a moment, it looked as though some kind of earthquake had hit, but most of the damage was too uniform...the way all the pictures were tilted the same way, or the way each individual book had been removed from the bookcase.

"What happened in here?" Blossom wondered aloud, then in a louder tone of voice, called out, "Professor? Are you here?"

The three of them entered to start looking around, and Bubbles said, "I hope he's all right..."

Buttercup looked around at the mess and picked up a broken mirror, which had fallen from the wall. She examined it and said, "Geez...what a mess. What do you think happened, Blossom?"

"Looks to me like whoever did this was looking for something," Blossom replied. "It must have been after the Professor left...all right, everyone, spread out and search for clues. Bubbles, you check upstairs. Buttercup, you take this level. I'll go to see if the lab is in order."

The girls all nodded and headed off in their respective directions. Blossom wasn't too surprised to see the lab door open, and as she went inside, she found pretty much what she had expected to find: equipment all moved around, file drawers open, and pretty much everything in complete disarray. She went through the debris, looking for anything that might help them identify who had done this, but there was nothing. No footprints, no fingerprints, nothing else left behind...whoever had done this had been careful to cover their tracks.

The oddest thing she found was a safe, set in the wall. She had seen it before...the professor kept important documents and so forth in there. There was a numerical combination lock, and the entire safe was made from a Duranium alloy, so it was next to impossible to break into. Yet, when she looked closer, she saw scratch marks in the surface; someone seemed to have tried to cut into the metal, but ultimately decided to abandon the attempt. Still, the metal _was_ scratched, which was a mystery in and of itself. Blossom knew well that a Duranium alloy doesn't scratch easily.

There was also something else against the wall next to the safe. It was a small, yellow sticky note. Blossom pulled it off the wall and took a look at it...there was nothing on it but a little crude drawing of a Powerpuff Girl on it, but one that held the characteristics of all three of them. It had a bow and pigtails, and a hairline that matched Buttercup's. As she was puzzling over why it was there, she heard the girls flying down into the lab. They hesitated for a moment, looking over the damage, then flew over to her...Buttercup told her, "I couldn't find anything."

"Me either," Bubbles said. "Our room's a mess! They tore it all apart! What's going _on?_"

"I'm not sure..." Blossom said absently, still focusing on the drawing she found. She showed it to the others and said, "What do you make of this?"

Bubbles took one look at it, and blinked, "DyNaMo?"

Blossom studied it again...it really wasn't well-drawn, and didn't look too much like the giant robot that the Professor had built for them a long time ago, but still, it did bear a resemblance. "DyNaMo..." she said to herself softly, then glanced over at the numerical keypad on the safe, "Wait a minute..."

On a closer look, the numbers on the keypad had letters on them, like a telephone keypad. She carefully put in the number '396266', spelling out 'DYNAMO'. To her surprise, it worked. The lock beeped once, and there was a clank as the safe door unlocked. She slowly opened the safe to see what was inside.

There wasn't much inside…a few stacks of paper, probably some various important documents like birth certificates and such. On the top of the pile, though, was a notebook, with the message 'Read This' scrawled across the front. Blossom pulled it out, and the other girls looked over her shoulder at it. "What _is _it?" Buttercup asked.

"Whatever it is," Blossom decided, "the professor wanted us to find it. I think we should read it." She headed over for the nearest table for some light, and the three of them gathered around it. Brushing aside some broken glass, she set the notebook down and opened it...

* * *

To my little angels...

Please, don't be alarmed at my sudden disappearance. It was necessary, and I knew you wouldn't understand without some sort of explanation. I'm sorry that I really didn't have the time to tell you, but I hope the following explanation will at least try to explain why I had to go. I feel you deserve to know the truth, but please..._please_, whatever you do, don't follow me, because it would mean great danger for all three of you, not to mention for the world...

_("Danger, huh?" Buttercup said. "Hah...what kind of danger can't be handled by the Powerpuff Girls?"_

Blossom shot a glance at her, "Shhh! Let's just read the rest of this first, okay? The professor hasn't even told us what the problem is, yet...")

This whole mess began about ten years ago. It was my first year as a professor of chemistry at the University of Townsville. It was a thrill to finally get the chance to start teaching, and the first semester was absolutely great. I was apparently named by the kids to be one of the 'cool' professors. As a result, everyone wanted to sign up for my class by the second semester. My first year couldn't have been going any better.

I became fast friends with one of my collegues, Dr. Ruth Langston...she was a professor of archaeology at the University, and the two of us engaged in all sorts of fascinating discussions. I was quite taken with her knowledge of science, but I must admit to being overwhelmed by her charm and beauty as well.

_("The professor had a girlfriend?" Bubbles said. "Aww, that's so cute!"_

"Yeah, I never knew," Blossom said. "Of course, this was...what, nine years before we were born? Wow..."

Buttercup frowned, "Yeah, yeah, fine, that's very interesting…but keep reading, already! I wanna get to the part with the danger!")

One day, during the second semester I was there, I was on my way to meet Dr. Langston...she and I usually had a cup of coffee together at the café at this time of the day. As I approached her office, though, I heard her talking to someone inside. I could just barely make out what they were saying...

"It's a very fascinating piece, Mr..." Dr. Langston said.

"I can't tell you," came the other voice. "Listen, you can have it. I don't want it, I don't want anything to do with it. I just want it out of my hands, all right?"

"Well...certainly, but...where did you acquire it? I need to know..."

"Please, just take it. Now, I have to leave..."

"Wait!"

The door opened at this point, and I took a step back as the man she was talking to came out. He was a somewhat older man, with thinning gray hair and a face that started to show wrinkles…not from age, but more from stress it looked like. The man took the quickest of glances at me, then hurried off down the hall, heading for the exit. Dr. Langston appeared at the doorway, almost looking as though she was about to follow, but she noticed me and said, "Oh... Professor Utonium. I almost forgot about our coffee..."

"Yeah," I said with a chuckle. "Can't work _too_ hard, you know...that's what the kids are there for." As she smiled at that, I glanced into the office, and spotted something on her desk. It was a strange-looking statue...it was carved in the shape of some kind of worm, but with claws. I didn't know a great deal about archeology, but this was definitely like nothing I've ever seen before. Adding to the curiosity of it was its position on the desk; it was contained in a glass jar, to preserve its condition I suppose, but on closer inspection, the statue was just...hovering inside. Nothing was propping it up.

All I got was a glance, though, because Dr. Langston closed the door after this and said, "Well, let's not keep that coffee waiting..."

"Indeed," I replied, and the two of us headed off for the café. Still, the image of that statue was still in my mind...where did it come from, and how was it suspended like that? I knew that I would want to have a closer look myself...my scientific curiosity was piqued, and I had to find out.

_("But what about the man?" Bubbles asked. "Who was he?"_

"Bubbles," Blossom said, "if the professor knew, then he'd say. But right now, we're not going to get through this if we have to stop every minute to talk about it. Let's just read, and we can talk about it when we're done reading, okay?"

"Okay... I'm sorry," Bubbles nodded, and stayed quiet as they continued reading...)

As we had our usual discussion over coffee at the café, I decided to bring up the statue. "That man that left just before I arrived...what was that item he brought you? I caught a glance of it on your desk, but..."

"Oh, nothing much," Dr. Langston said, pausing to take a sip of her coffee. "Just something he found. Didn't tell me where, unfortunately."

"Yes," I said. "It's very unique...I mean, I'm no expert, but...have you ever seen anything quite like it before?"

"Actually," she said, setting down her coffee for a moment, "...yes. I have a similar piece in my own collection..."

I was a bit surprised at this. "Really? But...what is it, then?"

She looked at me as if trying to make a decision. After a few seconds, she finally said, "I think I can trust you. I'm a pretty good judge of character...and I really need someone else that I can tell this to. But not here, in public..."

This change in her demeanor _really _took me by surprise. Concerned, I asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, but then after a pause, added, "...and everything. Look, I'll explain it to you, I promise. I know you need to head off to your class in a few minutes, so we'll talk about it after you get back. You know where the archeology vault is in the basement, right?" I nodded, and she continued, "Meet me there after your class. I'll explain everything there."

I nodded and finished my coffee. Dr. Langston glanced at her watch, and got up, starting to head back in the direction of her office. "I'll see you in a bit!" she said with a smile, and I simply smiled back and nodded. Looking at my own watch, I realized that it was almost time to teach my class, so I had to hurry up myself.

An hour passed...class went as usual, nothing particularly notable about it. I headed straight for the basement afterwards, and made my way through the halls to the archeology vault. Not many people came down in the basement, since it was all basically storage. This vault were actually a series of connecting rooms, filled with boxes containing all types of fossils or artifacts recovered from funded digs, all carefully catalogued and ready for study. I noticed as I approached the vault that the door was left open...it seemed strange to me, although I dismissed it at the time, guessing that Dr. Langston had just been a bit careless.

When I opened the door wider, though, I wasn't prepared for what I saw. To say that it came as a shock was an understatement...Ruth was lying on the ground, face-down, a pool of blood slowly building around her. Cuts and scrapes covered her arms, but most horrifying of all was her torso, which was...torn open, and hollow. It was as though something had gutted her, only they did it through her back.

_("Eeep!" Bubbles cried out, clasping her hands over her mouth. Buttercup and Blossom looked shaken as well, but neither of them said anything...they just continued reading, now paying much more serious attention...)_

I couldn't believe it...despite all my logic forcing the truth on me, I just couldn't believe that she was dead. Kneeling down next to her, I lifted one of her arms, checking her pulse at her wrist. As I sadly expected, there was none...however, I noticed a tiny piece of paper clenched in her hand. Carefully opening her fingers, I pried the crinkled-up paper out and unfolded it to take a look.

There was something wrapped up in the center of it...a small key. As I puzzled over it, I noticed a set of numbers scribbled on the inside of the paper as well. I recognized them as filing numbers immediately; everything in the archeology vault were indexed by them. I figured it was probably where she had put the piece she acquired earlier, or maybe where her duplicate piece was located. I gave Ruth's body a final glance and tried to regain my composure as I headed deeper into the vault.

I found myself questioning if I should even do this. Ruth was dead...I felt like I should have reported this to the authorities. But I couldn't explain it at the time...something seemed to draw me in, to find out for myself. It couldn't have just been my curiosity, because I knew my life would probably be in danger. No, it was more of a gut feeling...I just knew that I had to go and find the answers myself.

Girls, I know as you're reading this, you're probably worried, or frightened, and need some words of consolation. I can do my best in that regard, but I have not yet revealed why this is such a serious situation to begin with. As much as I can try console you, I'm not sure I can...after what I have learned, after what I will reveal to you hereafter, I find it difficult not to be afraid, myself. Afraid for us all...

**__**

TO BE CONTINUED...


	2. Chapter 2

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CHAPTER 2

"Girls," Bubbles said uneasily, interrupting their reading, as Blossom and Buttercup looked up at her. She hesitated, then said, "I...I don't know...should we be reading this? I mean..."

"He wanted us to," Blossom pointed out. "That's what it said at the beginning."

Bubbles nodded, "But...but it's just..."

"You're not scared, are you?" Buttercup asked, forcing a smile.

"Knock it off, Buttercup," Blossom snapped. "I saw the look on your face...you feel the same way about this right now."

"No way!" Buttercup said, shaking her head. "Anyway, c'mon, let's keep reading. I wanna find out what happens..." Blossom stared quietly at her for a few moments, then sighed. She gave a glance at Bubbles for a moment to make sure she was okay with it, and Bubbles nodded...taking a deep breath, she returned to where she left off...

* * *

It was bad enough that the vault had poor lighting. I almost wish I had brought a flashlight with me. Making my way down the rows of shelves, I looked at the labels on the boxes, trying to orient myself and figure out where I needed to go. A glance at the labels told me I was in the wrong section, so I went ahead deeper. I couldn't shake the feeling, though, that there was someone else here, even though everything was quiet. It felt like the walls had eyes...that they were watching my every move.

As I turned the corner to head into one of the subsections of the vault, I nearly tripped over something that was lying across the floor. When I saw what it was, I nearly ran out of the vault right then and there...it was another dead body, but this one was even in worse condition than Ruth. It's skin looked like it had decayed away...there was barely anything but twisted bits of muscle attached to the bone underneath. It was almost skeletal, and the putrid stench that arose from it told me that it had been dead for some time. As it was, it was impossible to identify who it may have been.

Biting my lip, I stepped over the corpse and continued, despite all the alarms going off in my head telling me just to run. I had come too far, though...I knew this was the section that held what I was looking for, and told myself that I could just get whatever it was, then I can leave, and never have to come back. Then I could report Ruth's death to the authorities...

I came to the section of the shelf and started looking across the labels, looking for the correct one. My eyes kept being drawn back to the corpse on the floor, but I eventually forced myself to keep focused on the boxes. Finally, I found it...the box with the same index as was on the paper. It was a strong box, with a lock, and I knew instantly that the key would fit it. Pulling the box down from the shelf, I tucked it under one arm...despite it's size, it wasn't that heavy. It almost felt empty, although I felt something slide around inside, so I knew it contained _some_thing...hopefully, the answer to all of this.

Turning back to the way out, though, what I saw I could scarcely believe at the time. I remember blinking in shock, then falling back a step as I realized I was seeing the impossible...the corpse on the ground was moving, slowly lifting itself to its feet. The sight of seeing the dead rise...I can't even describe it. It felt like everything I knew about science was caving in around me...

_("Z-zombies?" Buttercup asked, then frowned and said, "The professor's just making this up, isn't he? Zombies aren't real..."_

Bubbles looked frightened, and said, "Blossom, please, let's stop..."

"No," Blossom said, "we can't. We have to find out why the professor wanted us to read this..."

"But..." Bubbles started to protest, then stopped closed her eyes and said, "Okay...y-you're right..." She huddled her legs to her chest where she sat as they returned her attention to the book...)

I was frozen in place. I couldn't figure out what to do...the corpse stood completely upright, and swiveled slightly to face me. Its cold, dead eyes stared out at me...I can't even describe what I felt when it did. The eyes burned with a green glow; they seemed to pierce right into my soul. It was like, just looking into its eyes, I could see the horrible truth of its existence.

When it started to move towards me, I nearly panicked, backing up against the wall. I looked around feverishly for something to help me, until my eyes fell on the heavy box I was carrying. Since it was my only option, I grabbed the sides of the box and swung it, clubbing the thing on the side of the head. It had done the trick; the corpse fell landing in a heap on the ground...but it was still clawing, trying to get back up. Without further hesitation, I took the box and slammed it down on the corpse's head repeatedly.

By the time I had stopped, it was completely smashed. The corpse wouldn't rise again...or at least, so I thought, but even without its head, it was still moving. I backed out of the room carefully, watching it twitch on the ground, and as soon as I was clear of it, I turned and ran out. The authorities would have to be told about this, but would they even believe it? The dead, rising? There wouldn't be any denying it, though, not with the evidence right here.

But there was no evidence now. As I was exiting the vault, I saw the place where Ruth's body had been lying, and it was no longer there. I hadn't heard a thing...did someone move it? I didn't know then, and I never found out. All I knew at the time was that someone wanted to cover this up. They did a good job, too; if I went to the authorities now, they would never believe my story, not without the evidence...I'd have to find something more concrete, perhaps the contents of the box.

Once I was out of the vault, I hurried back to my own office post-haste. I was curious to see what it was that Ruth had been keeping inside that box...what was worth killing her over. I closed and locked the office door behind me and set it down on my desk. Fishing the key out from my pocket, I unlocked it and carefully lifted the lid.

There was a glass jar inside, not too dissimilar to the one that was on Ruth's desk before, although it was a little bigger. Inside it was a statue, hovering in place, but a different one than I had seen before. It was carved from some blue substance, but the shape didn't conform to anything I had ever seen before. The closest comparison would be that of a jellyfish or some kind of squid, but even then, its shape was alien, consisting of odd angles and proportions.

The curiosity of its suspension in the jar was even greater up-close; I could see that there was absolutely nothing holding it in place, and that the base of the jar was made of wood, so it couldn't have been held aloft by magnetism. It was impossible...but I had already witnessed the impossible earlier, so I had more of an open mind now. It was at that point that I think I first began to question the certainties of the world, the laws of physics and realities that I was so certain of all these years. Anything was possible...I had to realize this fact if I were to be kept from being driven mad by this. I still tell myself that to this day.

I placed one of my hands on the surface of the jar as I examined it, and for a moment, I heard something in my head...a resonating voice that whispered back in the recesses of my mind. It seemed like gibberish, not making any sense whatsoever, but I wasn't imagining it. It was there, I know it was there...it felt as though it was eminating from the object in the jar. And then, when I had almost reached the conclusion that it was nothing but senseless babble, I clearly heard my name...

[...Utonium...]

I was perfectly still, listening in disbelief...the voice grew clearer, and without giving it another thought, I quickly grabbed a pen and scribbled down what I heard on a piece of paper...

[_...pargon...tier...pargon...pargon...aretak...pargon...pargon...Ulyaoth...pargon..._]

After this, the voices fell silent. I moved my hand across the surface of the jar again, but nothing further came. I glanced down at what I had written...if it was in any language, it wasn't a language I was familiar with. But now that I had it written down, at least to the best of my spelling, I could take it to someone that _did _know. Surely there had to be someone else at the university that knew.

In the meantime, nothing could find this box. Hopefully, whoever had killed Ruth didn't know that I possessed it. Looking around my office, I found an empty corner of one shelf...replacing the statue into the box and locking it, I slid the box onto the shelf and hid the spot beneath the page of a newspaper which I quickly taped up. It wouldn't look suspicious, since I had similar articles taped up other parts of my office.

Pocketing the piece of paper with the words on it, I headed out for one of the other buildings on campus. I knew just who would be able to help me. Professor Ian Johnson was an expert on linguistics and also obscure languages...if I was lucky, I would be able to find the answers with him.

Ian was in his office when I got there. When he answered the door, he smiled and said, "Hey, good to see you again, Utonium."

"Thanks...you too, Ian," I said. "May I come in?"

"Of course," Ian replied, stepping aside and letting me enter. He added, "I was just grading some papers. What can I do for you?"

I fished the piece of paper out of my pocket and said, "Well, I came across something written in a language I can't identify, and I was wondering if you knew anything about it..." I handed it over to him and let him look it over.

He gave me a puzzled look and said, "Well, it's...odd, I'll grant you that. There are any number of languages that any of the words by themselves might be part of, but together...they don't really have common elements to associate them with _any _of them. Where did you find this?"

"Just on a manuscript," I quickly said. "So there's no way you can tell me what it means?"

Ian shook his head, "Sorry. It's impossible for me to tell, and if any of these are proper nouns, then I'd be even more lost. I'll tell you what, though...I have an old acquaintance, Christopher Benes, at another university who might know. He's familiar with a lot of archaic languages, including some only used in occult rituals. If anyone would know, it would be him. I could mail him when I get the chance..."

"Can you call him now?" I asked.

Ian seemed surprised. "Why now? Is this something important?"

I nodded, "You could say that, yes...so, can you?"

"I suppose so," he replied, returning to his desk. Thumbing through an address book, he picked up his phone and dialed out, while I found myself glancing nervously towards the door, like I expected someone to enter. I chided myself for being paranoid...but in this situation, it felt necessary.

"Christopher?" he said into the phone. "Yeah, hi, it's Ian...Yes, how are you doing?...Oh, I'm just fine. Look, the reason I called is, I have a collegue here, Professor Utonium, who was wondering if you could identify something for him...Yes, I'll put him on, one moment..."

He handed the phone over to me, and I lifted it to my ear, saying, "Hello?"

The voice on the other end sounded like a man in about his late fifties. He said, "Professor Utonium, yes...what is it you wanted me to listen to?"

"It's some old text," I told him. "I can't make heads or tails of it, and neither could Professor Johnson. Here, let me read it off to you..." Lifting the piece of paper, I started reading, "Pargon, tier, pargon, pargon, aretak, pa--..."

"Where did you hear that?" Christopher interrupted.

Surprised, I asked, "Why? Is it familiar?"

"Yes...yes, it is..." he said, softly.

I waited for a moment, but he was silent. After another second or so, I asked, "Well? What is it?"

"I can't tell you," he said. "Not over the phone anyway. Can I see you in person?"

"Um..." I started to say.

"You can fly right down here immediately," he continued. "Bring whatever it is you found that on with you, all right?"

"Wait!" I protested. "I have my class to worry about...and I can't really afford a trip right now..."

"I'll pay the expense," he said. "And your class can manage without you for a week. Please, this is important. And try not to tell this to anyone else, all right?"

"O...okay..." I said, taken a little by surprise. The rest of the phone call didn't stick in my memory too clearly, because my thoughts kept drifting back to the incident with Ruth, and the object I found. And now I would be taking a trip to see another professor about who knows what. Everything was happening way too fast. I began to wonder if things might have been different if I had never inquired about what I saw on Ruth's desk in the first place, but thinking back, they _would _have been different...they would have been much worse.

_("What does he mean by that?" Buttercup asked. "How could they be worse? If all that really happened to him, then..."_

"I think I know," Blossom said. "He's saying that even though all this bad stuff happened, even worse things would have happened if he hadn't gotten involved." She looked over at Bubbles, noticing that she was just starting at the journal quietly. "Hey, are you all right?"

"I-I'm fine," she said, "I-I just...I don't know...I still d-don't think we should be reading this...but I'm okay..."

"All right, if you're sure," Blossom said. Bubbles nodded slowly, and the three of them returned to reading...)

The arrangements were made, and in no time, I found myself on a plane to the university where Professor Benes taught. I packed light, but the box containing the artifact never left my side. All during the trip, I had occasional second thoughts about the whole thing...everyone back home would be wondering where Ruth had disappeared to, and why I coincidentally left at the same time. I was worried about the ramifications of what I was doing, but there was no going back now.

I arrived at my destination, and headed straight for the university. Christopher was waiting for me...he wasn't quite what I expected; his voice, even though it sounded in his late fifties, belied his true age, which looked to be somewhere around his early thirties instead. He bought me into his office quickly, shutting the door behind him. "Professor," he said, "I'm glad to see you made it safely..."

"Thanks," I replied, although I realized he probably meant that more than as a mere courtesy. "Now please, tell me... what's this all about?"

"First, let me see what you found," Christopher insisted.

I nodded, and set the box on the table, unlocking it and opening it up. Reaching inside, I lifted out the artifact inside its jar...Christopher's eyes lit up with awe when he saw it, and I commented, "Yes, I've never seen anything like it. I hope _you _can tell me where it came from."

"Oh yes," he said. "Most definitely. You see..." He reached over to something on the other side of the table that a black cloth was draped over, and pulled off the cloth to reveal a display case. It was made of glass, and floating in the center of it was...another statue, like the one I had just shown him. But it wasn't the same as mine, or the one I had seen on Ruth's desk earlier...this one was a jade-like green, and was carved in some winged shape, but that's the most I could make of it. And like the other two I had seen, it was hovering on its own accord as well.

This wasn't a coincidence...the pieces obviously had something to do with each other. They were unique, yet so similar. I finally looked up at Christopher and said, "All right, tell me what we have here. Tell me what this is all about. I need to know."

"I will tell you," Christopher explained, "although it is not for you to know, or any of us...we weren't meant to know. It is only by a twist of fate that the essences of the old ones would end up in our presence..."

"Old ones...?" I asked, confused.

He nodded, "Yes...what we have here are the essences of gods, Professor Utonium...ancient beings not meant for our world, ancient beings sealed away for millenia. But it is through them that they can regain their former power, and bring eternal darkness to all of humanity..."

**__**

TO BE CONTINUED...


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

            "I…I don't understand…" I said.

            Christopher sat down in a chair by his desk and said, "I'll tell you what I know, but it's not much.  I haven't any idea of their origins, nor of the full extent of their plans, but they _do _exist.  I've seen their ghastly minions in the flesh, and faced with the horror that is the truth, I have no choice but to believe it…"

            I lowered myself weakly into the only other chair in the office and stared at the statue he had uncovered.  "Who…are they?" I finally asked.

            "This," he said, indicating the statue, "is the essence of Xel'lotath, one of the three, the ones that wish to bring the darkness to humanity.  In it is contained her malice and cruelty, and power unimaginable.  The one you possess belongs to one of the other three, Ulyaoth…"

            Recognizing the name instantly, I said, "That's one of the words I heard from it!  Ulyaoth…"

            "What you heard, Utonium, was Ulyaoth trying to force its way into our world," Christopher explained.  "But he can't…he lacks the power, as do the others.  The ancient energies that keep the three of them sealed are unbreakable, even by them.  The irony is that they _would _be able to break their bonds, if only they would work together."

            I shivered slightly upon hearing that…so it was still possible for them to break free.  I asked, "What do you mean, irony?  Aren't we in danger, then?"

            He shook his head and said, "Not at the moment.  You see, the three of them are not allies in this fight.  They each seek power for themselves, and fear only that one of the other two will gain the power themselves, and abandon the others to their exile.  It is because of this feud that their powers were sealed away to begin with.  And now, their power is here on the Earth, outside of their reach…directly, anyway."

            "But it can still be used to free them," I guessed.  "Right?"

            Nodding, Christopher said, "They may despise each other, but properly wielded, anyone can command the power, and the influence of them are still strong, even in this form.  I'm only glad that you came into its possession under glass, as you have it now, instead of handling it directly; even the slightest touch can twist and corrupt one's mind, driving them into the darkness.  How _did _you come into its possession, anyway?"

            "My collegue, Ruth Langston…" I said, dropping my eyes.  "She's…dead…"

            Christopher stood up and walked over by my side, resting a hand on my shoulder, "I understand how you feel, my friend.  Both of my sons were killed in the expedition that led me to find the essence of Xel'lotath.  Killed by creatures so horrible, so unimaginable…I count myself lucky to have escaped with my own life, but I still grieve for them."

            "I'm sorry," I said softly, letting my eyes drift back to the artifacts on the table.  "So we have two of them…"

            "Yes," Christopher nodded.  "The third belongs to Chattur'gha, but it is still unaccounted for.  And if even one of them falls into the hands of the agents of evil…"

            "I've seen it…" I interrupted, sitting up.  "It was on Dr. Langston's desk, but…that was just before she was killed.  It was in the shape of a red clawed worm…"

            Christopher's eyes widened, and he said, "Then they have taken it…"

            I was puzzled, and asked, "Who?"

            "I encountered them on my expedition," he told me.  "A cultist group that call themselves simply 'the Cabal'.  It took some extensive research to learn about them, but then, it was easier than obtaining information about the three old ones.  The Cabal learned of the existence of the essences hundreds of years ago, and want them for themselves, to give their cult unlimited power.  Since then, they have sought them relentlessly, but in vain.  It is of the utmost importance that we retrieve the essence of Chattur'gha; it must _not _remain in their hands."

            "Agreed," I replied, "but wouldn't they need the other artifacts in order to achieve the power they're looking for?"

            "You don't understand," Christopher said, shaking his head.  "They can't use the power, not themselves.  Not directly.  If they try, Chattur'gha will exert his control over them, and will become even more dangerous than before.  With the newfound power, they will continue to pursue these artifacts, until they have them all, and their power will be unrivaled.  But Chattur'gha will simply use them to break his bonds and release himself upon our world.  The cultists don't seem to realize this, or if they do, they don't care…"

            "But as long as we have these two," I said, motioning towards the artifacts, "they can't.  Correct?"

            "They'll find them," he said sadly.  "And they aren't the only ones; they're seeking a fourth…"

            I stared at him, "…Fourth?"

            "Mantarok," Christopher explained.  "The corpse god…he lives on our world already, secluded in his tomb far from the eyes of man.  His power is waning, and he possesses little influence or any _true_ power anymore.  But his essence is still strong, and he still defends it, if only I knew where to find it.  He has kept it hidden for this long, though, so hopefully, we will not need to…"

            There was a knock at the door.  Christopher held his hand out to silence me before I said anything, and moved to check through the eyehole of the door.  As I watched, the color drained from his face, and he whispered, "Professor…head out the window, now.  Take the essences of Xel'lotath and Ulyaoth with you…"

            "What is it?" I whispered back, standing up cautiously.

            "Cabal members…" he replied.  "They found me…I don't know how, but they found me.  They mustn't find the artifacts…I will keep them distracted, and you just make a run for it, okay?"

            I nodded and headed for the window, sliding it up to open it.  The knocking came again, then was followed by a loud *_thud_* as something heavy struck the door.  They were trying to break in.  I climbed out of the window, and Christopher quickly threw a cloth over each of the cases containing the artifacts, and handed me both of them, which I tucked securely under each arm.  Looking back, I saw something in his eyes…he wasn't expecting to come out of this encounter alive, and I knew that it was up to me to make sure they don't find what they came for.

            The sun had set, and it was dark on campus, perfect to cover my escape.  Moving quickly, I headed for the parking lot, opening the door to the rental car I obtained when I had arrived.  I placed the artifacts into the trunk, and then climbed into the driver's seat.  When I started up the engine and switch the headlights on, the headlights illuminated something about fifty feet in front of the car, and I froze, my mouth dropping open at the sight of it.

            It was enormous, at least ten feet tall, if not bigger.  It was hunched over slightly, and its huge, muscular frame had a red, mottled appearance, like some twisted, flayed flesh.  It had two massive clawed hands, dripping with some liquid.  Three heads were set into its body…eyeless, but they still stared directly at me.  It was an impossible sight, a creature that should not exist, but it was there, in front of me…

            With a roar, it lumbered towards the car, and I froze…I didn't know what to do.  Everything was telling me that I couldn't possibly be seeing what I was seeing, but my survival instinct finally took over.  With a shout, I jammed my foot on the gas, shifting the car to reverse.  I pulled away from it, twisting the wheel to one side to spin the car so that it faced forward.  I threw the car into drive as soon as I was facing the right way.  It was almost upon me…as I pulled away from it, I felt the car shake from an impact…it had struck the rear end of it with its claw, a blow that glanced off the bumper.

            I didn't even look back.  I hit the gas and sped out of the parking lot as fast as I possibly could.  I was shaking, and barely able to keep on the road.  I think I was speeding, but I didn't care.  I just wanted to get away.  Eventually, I think I calmed back down, but I will never forget the image I saw back there.  It is something that would haunt my nightmares to this day.

            _(The girls silently looked up from the book at each other.  It was difficult to imagine what the professor had encountered, and all three of them realized that it was probably worse than his description led to believe.  Wordlessly, they stared at each other, drawing comfort in each other's presence, before they looked back down at the journal and resumed reading…)_

            Christopher Benes was dead.  I found that out on my return home…he had been shot in the back of the skull.  The police had no suspects, and no witnesses.  Ruth, I had discovered, was still completely missing, and no one knew of her whereabouts, or that she was dead.  I felt alone at this point.  I knew a few sketchy details of what was going on, but it was hardly enough for my impossible task of keeping the artifacts hidden…and recovering the one that was already taken.

            Still, they didn't know who I was.  If I could just remain unknown, they would never find me.  Or so I hoped…but as time passed, I realized that it was only inevitable.  I had to do something.  I began to formulate a plan to hide the artifacts in a place where no one would ever find them, but first, I began researching the Cabal, looking for any clues as to their whereabouts.

            It was almost three years later that I stumbled upon it…a receipt of sale for a building that was possibly a temporary base of operations.  Bought about forty years back, its location made sense, close to an airport for easy access to private planes, to take them wherever their search needed to go.  There had also been sign of minor cultist activity in the area, but nothing to which the authorities had been overly concerned about, especially since every attempt to prove its existence had been met with failure.

            I drove to the city—it wasn't far—and located the building, scooping it out from a safe distance.  This is certainly something the police should handle, instead of one man, but I had no choice…they'd never believe me anyway.  Besides, a sneaky approach would give them less chance to cover up their operations.  I watched all day as people entered and left the building…through my binoculars, I could see each one of them wearing a pin containing a symbol that resembled a set of claws gripping a skull.  The symbol of the Cabal, I had learned.

            Once night fell, I approached the building silently, dressed in black to avoid being seen.  There were windows on the base of the building, leading to the basement, but they were securely barred.  I, however, had brought along tools to cut through them.  In only a few minutes, I had removed the bars and carefully climbed down into the basement.

            There wasn't much, just a few stacks of boxes, but then I spotted a door.  Opening it cautiously, it led to a stairway…there was something else even further underground.  No doubt what I was looking for.  Listening carefully to make sure no one was around, I descended the steps, slowly and quietly.

            It went down for a long ways, and finally opened up to a new area…about a hundred feet on each side, and nearly as deep, the walls made of solid concrete.  I was on a ledge off to one side, overlooking the room, and when I spotted movement below, I ducked behind the wall that ran along the ledge so I wouldn't be seen.  Poking my head up carefully, I looked down at the scene below.

            There was a pit below, filled with dead bodies…a lot of them.  Most of them were ripped to shreds, and blood covered the floor, everywhere.  Not all the corpses were completely dead, though…many of them were standing, lumbering around, while others were kneeling next to other bodies, feeding off their flesh.  Cabal members stood near the edge, leading people in from some side room, people that screamed in terror before being thrust into the pit, to the mercy of the zombies…

            _(Bubbles looked up from the book…she was crying now, and sobbed, "I-I don't…get it…wh-why is he…why is he t-telling us this?!"_

_            "I don't know…" Blossom said, badly shaken as well.  "I don't get it either…it's s-so horrible…"_

_            Even Buttercup looked uneasy, "W-well, let's…let's keep reading…h-he's gotta explain somewhere…right?")_

            There was something else.  On the far side of the pit, overlooking the whole thing, was a man about in his thirties, with a long streak of gray running across the side of his brown hair.  He was clad in robes colored in black and yellow, with a large brooch engraved with the symbol I had seen before.  The man was watching everything with a smile.  More importantly, though, was what he held in his hands out in front of him: the bell jar, containing the essence of Chattur'gha…

**_TO BE CONTINUED…_**


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

            As I watched the horrifying sight below, I felt a great surge of fear and uncertainty, that maybe I should not have come here.  But I had come this far, and I realized the importance of the situation.  Whoever these people were, if they were allowed to possess the essence of Chattur'gha, it would only mean a matter of time before Chattur'gha himself would use them to breach the bonds that kept him from our world.  It was a perilous situation, and I was one of the few people who knew it had to be stopped, although whether or not I would be able to still remained to be seen.

            One of the cultists walked up to the man in the robe, obviously their leader, and spoke with him.  I was able to make out what they were saying, even from my distance, as they were speaking loudly.  "The preparations are nearly complete, Ireseth, my lord."

            "I am most pleased," Ireseth replied, studying the bell jar in his hands.  "Soon, we can begin the ritual to unlock Chattur'gha's powers.  No longer will we exist only in shadow, in fear of the non-believers.  The dawn of the Cabal's rule is at hand…all will bend to our will, and the world will learn to fear _us_ instead."

            The cultist nodded, "It will be glorious."

            Ireseth moved to a small pedestal near the back of the room and set down the bell jar, then turned to the other cultist to ask, "What news of the others?"

            "The essences of Xel'lotath and Ulyaoth are still unaccounted for," the cultist replied.  "We believed we were certain of their locations, yet neither were recovered.  We could not have been far, though, for we encountered beasts of their calling…"

            "I see," Ireseth said, rubbing his chin.  "And Mantorok?"

            Shaking his head, the cultist said, "Our lead turned out to be a false one.  There was nothing at the temple."

            Ireseth clenched his teeth slightly, then said, "It is no concern.  Once our rituals are complete, we will be able to track them down readily enough."  He glanced at the pit and ordered, "That should be enough.  Gather everyone together in the great hall for the focus.  We will return for the final ceremony once that is complete."

            The cultist nodded and started moving around to the other cult members, leading them to a wide set of double doors on the opposite end of the room.  Ireseth joined them, and as the last of the cries died down from the pit, the only sound in the room was the low moan of the walking dead within it.  This wasn't what grabbed my attention, though; it was the pedestal.  Ireseth had left the essence of Chattur'gha behind, unguarded.

            My chance was now, while they were gone.  I quickly found a ladder by the ledge I was on and climbed it down to the bottom of the room.  I had to cover my nose and mouth…the stench that rose from the pit was almost unbearable, especially this close to it.  I couldn't understand how the Cabal members could bear it.  The zombies must have sensed my presence, because some of them started clawing at the sides of the pit, trying to climb out even though it was impossible.

            Still, there were no obstacles.  The bell jar sat there, on the pedestal, mine for the taking.  Without hesitation, I scooped it up…the moment I did, the zombies in the pit started to moan louder, and even the ones that were busy eating had stood up.  It was as though they could sense the power, or that it was going to be taken from them…

            I made haste back to the ladder and, tucking the bell jar into my backpack, started climbing.  About halfway up, I heard a slam, and looked down to see that the double doors had opened.  The Cabal was back already, with Ireseth at the lead.  He spotted me and shouted, "A non-believer!  Stop him!"  I resumed climbing, faster now, as several gunshots rang out, the bullets striking the wall next to me.

            Doubling my efforts, I made it to the top as fast as I could.  The moment I reached the ledge, I ran for the stairs.  I knew I was going to make it; I had too much of a lead on them.  Thanks to the back outfit I was wearing, they wouldn't be able to identify me, so I knew if I escaped, the essence would be out of their hands.  Once up, I headed for the window I had entered the building through.

            I was free.  I'm sure they looked, but they couldn't find me.  The essence was safe once again, and I took the trip back home to rejoin it with the others.  They were all in my possession now…Ulyoth, Xel'lotath, and Chattur'gha…all of them.  And nobody knew I had them.  It was perfect…I would be able to keep them safe, for as long as I was able.

            _["Whew…" Blossom said.  "That was a close call."_

_            "Yeah," Buttercup agreed.  "Man, this is actually kind of cool…the professor fought evil way before we ever did!"_

_            Nodding, Blossom said, "Yes, but there's more to the journal, I think we should finish it…"  She trailed off as she noticed Bubbles, with her eyes clenched shut.  "Bubbles?"_

_            "This…this is just…" Bubbles managed to say, then opened her eyes again.  "I don't know…I-I just have a bad feeling…l-like it's not over yet…"_

_            "Hang in there, Bubbles," Blossom reassured her.  "There isn't too much left…"]_

            I thought it would be over, that I could keep the artifacts in secrecy.  But I had difficulty sleeping after that…sometimes, I could hear their voices in my dreams, haunting me.  Voices, and images of pain and death…they wanted to be freed, and so help me, I actually considered it a few times.  _Anything_ to stop the dreams.  I was always bound in them, trapped in their clutches, being forced to watch as mankind was enslaved, tortured, killed…I couldn't bear it much longer.  Even moving them to my office at the university didn't seem to help.  But I didn't give in…I knew that I could never let them fall into the wrong hands.  _Never._

            That wasn't the last I saw of the Cabal, either.  Sometimes, I saw others wearing the pin with their symbol, near my home, and I knew they were looking for me.  They didn't know who I was, but they had a vague idea _where _I was.  I didn't see how this was possible.  Perhaps they traced me through Ruth, or perhaps through some other source, but if so, why didn't they approach me directly?  No, they were lead here by something else.  Once they left, I decided the essences would be safer at home than my office, since it is more secure.

            Then I saw them around the university, too, and that's when it hit me.  They had some way of finding the essences.  Perhaps it was the power they possessed…perhaps there was some ritual that helped the Cabal zero in on them.  It was lucky that I had moved them, or they would have found them for certain.  I kept moving them after that, sometimes once a week.

            One terrifying encounter came when I encounter Ireseth himself.  He actually came into my office at the university one day for information.  Though he was dressed in a suit instead of the robes I saw him in previously, there was still no mistaking him.  Despite the fact that I recognized him, I did my best to hide it and asked, "Is there something I can do for you?"

            "Yes, Professor…Utonium, is it?" he said.  "I'm looking for someone who would know a lot about archeology…someone who could help me identify the value of a piece in my personal collection."

            "I'm afraid you've come to the wrong professor, then," I told him.  "I'm a professor of chemistry, not archeology."

            Ireseth nodded and said, "But you know the faculty better than I.  Perhaps you can recommend someone?  I'm particularly looking for anyone who favors rare and unusual objects…"

            "Nobody in particular," I said.  "Professor Adams would be your best shot, but nobody here has any kind of extensive collection, not since Dr. Langston…"  I mentally cringed.  The last thing I wanted to do was draw attention to this, but I also didn't want to look like I was avoiding it, because that would have drawn suspicion as well.

            "Ah," he said.  He glared at me for a moment, and I was worried…did he recognize me, even now?  But if he did, he didn't show it…he got up and said, "I'm sorry to have taken your time, then.  I'll check with Professor Adams anyway and see if he can help."

            "Good luck," I said as Ireseth left the office.  As soon as he was gone, I breathed a brief sigh of relief, glancing down at the drawer to my desk…the drawer that currently contained the essences.  I had not had time to move them, but thankfully he did not find them.  It made me realize how close this would be, though.

            I figured he'd probably have someone watching me just in case, so I left them there.  It wouldn't be until a few days before I moved them back to my house.  I also wasn't directly approached by Ireseth or any more of the Cabal members, even though I still occasionally spotted one.

            Four years passed since I had recovered the essence of Chattur'gha, and I tried to gather as much lore as I could, without being obvious about it.  Finding information about the Cabal was easier than this, but the little scraps of info I found told me what I needed to know.  They were indeed using an ancient ritual to find the essences…each time, it would tell them the general area, and each time, they would conduct a search.  Thanks to covering my tracks, though, they didn't make the connection to me.  Yet.  Every day, though, I grew more fearful that they would find me, if only by dumb luck.

            That's when I started examining the essences themselves.  Their power was great, but I knew there had to be a way to mask it, so much that even the rituals would not give away their whereabouts.  Through the lore and my own observation, I discovered a great many thing about the old ones.  The three were vastly different from each other.  Chattur'gha relied on raw strength and might.  Ulyaoth focused on the force of the spirit, the energy of life.  Xel'lotath's power stemmed from the mind, from one's own sanity and thought.

            Their differences made them enemies…Chattur'gha's strength could not stand against the intelligence and magic of Ulyaoth.  Ulayoth, on the other hand, was powerless against Xel'lotath's control of the mind.  Yet Xel'lotath's control would be crushed before Chattur'gha's awesome might.  It thus formed a circle of hatred between them, but I noticed that beyond their differences, they were still forces of pure evil, all of them.

            I came up with a theory at that moment.  It might be possible to mask their essences if they were encased in their opposites.  Perhaps a pure, blessed shell of good would do it, if such a thing existed.  But I knew I needed more, because their powers would still crack the shell easily.  The answer lay in their feud, and the way their powers struggled against one another.  If the shell contained those wards, maybe even placed upon them through the magic of the opposing essences…it would take time to figure out, either way.

            Researching and experimenting for the next two years, I knew I was almost out of time.  The dreams grew worse, almost as though the essences were calling out, the poison tendrils of their wills snaking out further each day.  They wanted to be found, that much was certain.  But I would not yield…I would let my mind, my very sanity be destroyed, before I would let this happen.  Nothing, I knew, could truly overcome the strength and dedication of a single person.

            That's when it struck me.  It all fell into place.  A single person could act as a guardian, and endure that which even a shell of pure good could not.  And if the person themselves was a force of purity and good…it was perfect.  My next theory was a long shot, but if it worked, the essences would be safe, possibly forever.  I dug out one of my old theories, one that I had been working on for many years, since before this mess, since I had begun science.  Looking it over, I realized that this might just work.

            After some final preparation and experimentation, it was time.  That night, I made some last minute calculations, and in the early hours of the morning, after obtaining the last of the necessary components, I put the plan into effect.  Carefully removing the essences from their containers using a pair of tongs, to make sure they didn't come in contact with me, I placed them together in a bowl, and then gathered together the components of the formula that would produce the pure goodness I had hoped for.  I put them in one by one: sugar, spice, and everything nice…

            _[The girls froze, staring at the book.  Blossom read the previous line aloud just to be sure she read it correctly.  The other girls just stared in shock, and after a moment, all three of them continued reading…]_

            I would never have predicted that the accidental dose of Chemical X would give you powers.  I was still amazed at that.  But even despite this, it worked better than I had ever hoped.  Please forgive me…I'm so sorry I never told you this before, but I feared your reaction to the truth.  You see, girls, the essences are contained within each of you, beneath the shield that is your own goodness, and forever beyond the reach of any mortal…

**_TO BE CONTINUED…_**


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

            "But…" Bubbles stammered, "b-but…that…wha…"

            "They're…inside us?" Buttercup said, looking up from the book at the other girls.  "Is… is this for real?"

            Blossom ran a hand across her chest and said, "I dunno…I don't…_feel_ any different…"

            "Why _would _we?" Buttercup pointed out.  "I mean, if we were _created_ like this…oh man, this doesn't make any sense!"

            Bubbles held the sides of her head and closed her eyes, "This can't be real… w-we weren't made j-just for…we a-aren't just…I don't…"  She trailed off.

            Reaching over and taking hold of one of her hands, Blossom said, "Hey…take it easy, Bubbles…there's still a little left to read.  We'll get to the bottom of this.  Just hang in there, okay?"

            "Okay…okay…" Bubbles said softly.  The girls looked back down at the book to finish reading…Bubbles was visibly distressed, but Blossom and Bubbles were just as terrified, even if they tried not to show it.  They carefully began reading the final passages…

*          *            *

            From the moment I saw the three of you, I knew that it had worked.  The essences were contained within each of you; I could tell instantly from your coloration alone.  Blossom held the essence of Chattur'gha; of that I had no doubt.  Likewise, the essence of Ulyaoth had found its home in Bubbles, and the essence of Xel'lotath confined within Buttercup.  But most importantly, I could see the goodness in each of you.  As we spent our first day together, it was evident to me that you were indeed the beings of pure good I had hoped for.

            I still had some doubt, but as your personalities emerged, I realized just why the essences were so well contained.  As I mentioned before, each of the old ones had a weakness that one of the others exploited.  Blossom's spirit and intelligence worked well to contain Chattur'gha, much in the same way Ulyaoth would.  Bubbles was more in tune with her feelings and emotions, a perfect counter to Ulyaoth's power.  And Buttercup had no troubles keeping Xel'lotath's essence under control, with her ferocity and strength.

            I admit, though, that I started to worry if your goodness went beyond the surface.  If you weren't good to your core, it wouldn't work.  After the initial incident with Mojo, I was afraid…it seemed for a moment that you were somehow putting the will of the old ones in effect by unleashing such terrors upon us.  For a moment, I was truly afraid that I had failed…but you proved your courage, your strength, and your dedication to that which is right.  I couldn't have been more proud of you…and more relieved.

            As time passed, too, I noticed some changes.  The nightmares had finally stopped, and I was able to sleep soundly once again.  I saw no more of the Cabal, either; they had likely moved on, thinking that the essences had been moved away from Townsville.  The experiment was a success, and I realized then that the essences would finally be safe.  The presence of your unexpected superpowers made it even safer; there was no possible way _anything _could take them from you now.

            But it wasn't over.  Although everything remained quiet for a long time after that, something happened the other night.  I had a dream…not a regular dream, either; this one felt as real as though I were awake.  I dreamt I was walking through some old ruins…some sort of ancient temple.  The walls were carved from stone, set with ancient carved murals and statues.  Everything was overgrown with vines, covered with cobwebs and dust.  Nobody had set foot in this temple in ages, possibly not for hundreds of years.  Yet I walked through it, ignoring the cobwebs and making my way deeper inside, guided by a voice that whispered my name.

            I finally entered into a lower chamber of the temple and saw…I can't even describe it.  It was huge, covered with hundreds of eyes and mouths…a large mouth lined with teeth sat on the top.  It stuck up from the center of the room and on the sides, as though filling a pit beneath it, only the top visible.  I couldn't even fathom how much larger this creature may have been.  The whole thing pulsated slowly, stretching and contracting almost like it was breathing, its eyes shifting to look around.

            As I stared in awe at the thing, a human form appeared before me, ghostly.  He was clad in what looked like ancient tribal garb…perhaps one of the former inhabitants of the temple, a priest or some such.  Like he was reading my questioning thoughts, he spoke, "Before you is what's left of the corpse god, the immortal Mantorok, festering within this, his tomb, for all eternity…"

            "Mantorok…" I repeated.  I had heard the name before, as I had mentioned earlier…the fourth of the old ones, and the only one whose essence was still unaccounted for.

            The tribal priest drifted closer and said, "There is something you must do…Mantorok's living essence is in danger.  It cannot—it _must _not—fall into the hands of the Cabal, for they would use it to destroy you…"

            "How did this happen?" I asked.  "Wasn't it well-protected here?"

            "It was always in danger of discovery," he explained.  "The Cabal were very close, but Mantorok took a risk…"

            I was confused, and asked "What risk?"

            Instead of answering, he stretched out his arm to the air in front of me.  At once, my surroundings changed, and in what seemed an instant, the images that formed around me explained what had happened.  I could see it all…Mantorok knew that the Cabal was very near to locating the temple where he was entombed, perhaps merely in a matter of months.  Not long enough for him to put any plans into motion.

            But all wasn't lost.  Mantorok had watched my own activities from afar, and saw how successfully I had contained the essences of the other three old ones.  He longed for similar release, a way for his essence to remain forever safe, even if it meant putting it outside of his own reach.  He still needed a being of pure good to contain and hide it, and after much watching, an opportunity finally arose, when the three of you had snuck into my lab one afternoon to create a fourth Powerpuff sibling…

            _[Buttercup, "Fourth…Powerpuff…sibling…"_

_Bubbles caught on first, and gasped, "B-Bunny?  Is he talking about…?"_

_            "He must be," Blossom answered.  "Yes, he is, look…"]_

            When the time was right, it was a simple matter for Mantorok to extend his will, even from afar, and place his essence within the bowl where you were mixing the ingredients.  It easily went beyond your notice, amongst everything else you had added.  His plan almost worked, too…Bunny was created, and his essence successfully contained.

            But Mantorok's power runs thin.  Barely able to conjure a few twisted and dead corpses to his aid, his essence failed to give the strength and stability that the other ones did.  It was the old one's presence, not the ingredients, which caused Bunny's physical being to become twisted and deformed.  And ultimately, it was this weakness that caused her instability as well.  Mantorok didn't intend for Bunny to explode, and couldn't have foreseen it would happen.

            The risky move had cost him.  His essence was now exposed, no longer hidden safely away from the Cabal, or any other human.  It had settled from the explosion, for not even such a detonation could hope to damage something as powerful as an old one's very being.  The blast carried it to the shore just outside Townsville, and there it lay, at the bottom of the bay, unbeknownst to all except Mantorok himself.

            That would change, however…eventually, the Cabal's rituals located it; without its protection, they were able to gradually zero in on its location, and the very night I had this dream, it was found.  Once these final images were revealed to me, I woke up…the warning was strong, and meaningful; I knew what they were planning with it, and I knew also that I must put a stop to it, at all costs.

            There was little time, so as I spent the time writing this record out for you, I called up as many people as I could to try and find where the Cabal's latest headquarters were.  Since I knew their alias, from the bill of sale on their former building, it was easier to track them down without drawing attention.

            And this is why I had to leave suddenly…I must stop them, girls, at all costs, even if it means my own life.  If there's even a slim chance I can be successful, I will take it.

            But I beg you…please, do not try to follow me, or locate me.  I have to do this alone.  You _must_ understand the risk…Chemical X gives you great abilites, but it is still a mere shadow to the might of the old ones.  If the Cabal manages to tap into the powers of Mantorok's essence, this could give them the strength to retrieve the ones _you _hold.  This _cannot _happen.

            If I fail, the Cabal will surely be able to track you down, through Mantorok.  Please, run if this happens.  Leave Townsville, and never stay in one place.  They will hunt you to the ends of the Earth.  But I say again…_do not try to follow me._  It is quite possible that this will be my last wish, so I ask you to _please _honor it.

            My little angels, I will always love you.  Farewell.

*          *            *

            Blossom closed the book slowly, and looked up in silent shock.  Buttercup bit her lip and looked like she was going to say something, but couldn't think of what.  Bubbles had tears in her eyes…after a moment of silence, she whispered, "…Dad…"

            "I can't believe it," Buttercup finally said.  "The professor…all alone on this…What's going to happen?  What if…what if he doesn't…make it back…?"

            "He will, he has to," Blossom said, with confidence she didn't feel.

            Shaking her head, Buttercup said, "No…didn't you hear what he's up against?  And…and they probably won't let the same thing happen again…they'll have tighter security…and…"

            "Stop it!" Blossom shouted suddenly.  "Don't you think I know how hopeless this is for him?  Don't you think…don't you think _he _knows how hopeless this is?"

            Buttercup frowned a little, narrowing her eyes, "Well, it's not hopeless if we help him."

            "What?" Blossom exclaimed.  "We _can't_…the professor s—…"

            "_Forget_ about that!" Buttercup said back, getting to her feet.  "I don't know about you, but I'm not gonna sit around here doin' _nothing, _while the professor going off to _die_ somewhere!"

            Jumping back to her own feet, Blossom yelled, "It's not _safe!_  There's too much at risk!  Don't you understand?  We're holding the fate of the _world_ inside us!  If we go after him, then _everything _the Professor did could be for _nothing!!_"  Her final word hung in the air, as they continued to glare at each other in silence.

            The quiet was broken when Bubbles said softly, "What if we stop them first?"

            Blossom looked down at her, "What?"

            "Well, the professor said that the power of…M—…Man'troc…" she said, stumbling momentarily on the word, "…wasn't controlled yet…"

            Buttercup frowned, and began to say, "What's that have to do with…"

            "Wait," Blossom interrupted, lost in thought.  "Wait, she's right…we're only in danger if the Cabal manages to unlock the powers from the essence of this 'Mantorok'…so…"

            Buttercup smiled slightly as she caught on, "…so if we can get there before they do it, we can stop them…and still be safe!  Am I right?"

            Nodding, Blossom said, "But there's still the problem of _finding_ them.  The professor didn't say where they were going, you know.  All we know is that it's some building, somewhere…and it's probably not even in Townsville.  Unless…"

            "Unless what?" Bubbles asked.

            Instead of answering, Blossom flew out from the lab, heading upstairs.  In an instant, she flew into the professor's den, where his desk and all his papers were.  The girls came in behind her, and saw her leafing through the stacks of paper on the desk.  "Bloss, what are you doing?" Buttercup demanded.

            "The professor recently called some people to check up on that building," Blossom explained as she continued to sort through the papers, "so there has to be a note or _something _where he scribbled it down, or at least a phone number…"

            "Unless he took it with him," Buttercup pointed out.

            "Perhaps, but…" Blossom started to say, but broke off as she found a pad of paper on the desk.  Pages had been torn from it, but as she looked closely, she could still see the indent from whatever had been written on the page above.  She smiled, "Bingo!" and examined it more closely, "Okay…let's see…Bubbles, write this down…"

            Bubbles grabbed a pen and paper from the desk, "Okay…"  Blossom carefully made out the address and read it off, one letter at a time.  It took about a minute, but Bubbles copied it down exactly as she read it.  She read it back, "755 Oakwood Blvd…is that it?"

            "Yeah, no city name or anything," Blossom said.  "That probably means it _is _in Townsville!"

            Buttercup grinned, "Well, then what are we waiting for?  Let's get there fast and save the professor!"  Without wasting another minute, Buttercup headed for the front door.  The other girls were right behind her, and together they flew out from the house, heading for the heart of Townsville to search for the address.  They each knew they had to hurry, but Blossom had a bit of doubt…the professor had specifically told them not to come looking for him, yet they were anyway.  The professor usually knew what he was talking about, too…she seriously hoped that, by looking for him, they weren't making a big mistake…

**_TO BE CONTINUED…_**


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

            "Let's see, 755 Oakwood Blvd…" Blossom said aloud as she scanned the streets below, looking for the street signs to orient herself.  "Does Townsville even _have _an Oakwood Blvd.?"

            Next to her, the other girls were carefully looking as well, and Buttercup shrugged, "Beats me.  There's gotta be like a million streets in this city, how am I supposed to memorize all of 'em?"

            "Okay, okay," Blossom nodded.  "Still, keep an eye out.  It has to be here somewhere, and…" She cut herself off as she suddenly shivered…a wave of cold rushed over her, but she wasn't sure where it was from.  It chilled her to the bone, but a moment later, it was gone.  When she recovered, she glanced over at the other girls, and judging from their reactions, they had felt it too.

            Bubbles spoke up first, "What was that…?"

            "I dunno," Buttercup said, blinking.  "You all felt it too?"

            Nodding, Blossom said, "Yeah…it felt sort of like…like it came from…"

            "That way," Bubbles interrupted, pointing down at the city.  "It felt like it came from that way."  Looking off in the distance, they saw where she was pointing…a small stretch of back road, leading around to a single structure.  It looked like an old church, one that was all run-down and no longer in use.  But they saw two things…one was the street marker, 'Oakwood'…and the other was a small car parked around back that looked like…

            "…our car!" Buttercup exclaimed.  "That's it!  That's the professor's car!  He _must _be there!"

            "All right, girls…let's go!" Blossom ordered, and the three of them quickly descended from the sky.  They landed outside the front doors of the church and, approaching it, slowly swung the doors open.  The doors creaked from lack of use, and the lights of the city dimly illuminated the interior.  Drifting inside, the girls stayed silent, observing the surroundings as they moved on.

            The rows of pews in the church were covered with dust; it was obvious that it had been shut down for some time.  Anything expensive had already been moved out; particularly, there was a lack of crosses or tapestries.  There were the occasional sounds of bats flying around the high rafters of the building, but otherwise, it looked abandoned, and for a moment, the girls began to doubt that anyone had recently been there.  _But that doesn't make sense, _Blossom thought.  _The professor's car was right out front…_

            "What do we do now?" Bubbles said, breaking the relative silence.

            "Spread out and search," Blossom said.  "We're going to turn this place inside out, and if he's not here, then they must have already left."  Nodding, the girls set out to check out different parts of the church.  Bubbles set out for the back rooms, and Blossom started examining around the sides.

            Buttercup flew up the center aisle to the altar in the front.  She glanced up at the large stained glass windows high on the walls, which were dirty, but still recognizable.  _This must have been a beautiful place, _she thought, _back before it fell apart.  So much dust covering everything now… _As her thoughts wandered, she suddenly had an idea, and looked down at the ground closely…sure enough, there were light footprint markings in the dust on the ground.

            "Hey, girls!  Over here!" Buttercup called out.  The other girls flew over in an instant to take a look as she pointed out the footprints she found.  "Someone was definitely here."

            "Do you think it was the professor?" Bubbles asked.

            Nodding, Blossom said, "Could be.  Follow them…which way do they go?"

            Buttercup flew along slowly, following the footprints, until she got up to the front of the altar.  Mysteriously, though, the footprints came to a stop.  She blinked a few times in surprise, "Wait…they stop here.  But…"

            Blossom, perplexed, looked up at the altar, and noticed an area on the lower side where the dust had been cleared off.  She ran her hand over it carefully, and brightened when she felt a small switch, hidden underneath the edge out of sight.  She triggered it, and with a rough sliding noise, the entire area of the altar started to slowly lower into the ground.  The other girls were startled, but flew down with it as it sank into the ground.

            Once it had gone down about a whole story, it came to a stop with a *_thunk*_.  Revealed there was a doorway, with a staircase that lead down.  Blossom grinned, "So they're _under _the church.  Pretty clever, but not clever enough.  All right, we have no idea what's beyond here, so everyone be careful, all right?"

            Bubbles nodded, "Got it."  Buttercup smirked, but nodded also.

            The three of them slowly descended the stairs.  In contrast to the darkness of the church, small torches lit the way down for them.  _More proof that we're heading in the right direction, _Blossom thought.  _Torches don't light themselves, after all.  _It illuminated the walls, consisting of featureless blue-gray stone.  What was most striking about it was that the stone didn't look worn or aged at all…it looked almost like it had been carved recently, except for the mysterious layer of dust on top of it.

            Buttercup noticed it too, and asked, "So…is this place new, or old, or what?"

            "It _looks _kinda old," Bubbles remarked.  She glanced further down the stairway and pointed, "There's a door at the end…"

            Sure enough, a large stone door blocked the rest of the way down, the same blue-gray color as the rest of the staircase.  There was an odd assortment of inscriptions on the door that didn't make any sense to them.  Blossom ignored this and approached the door, trying to open it.  After a few attempts, it wouldn't budge.  "It's stuck…look around for a switch or…"

            "Stand back," Buttercup said, pushing her out of the way and flying up to the door.  Pulling her fist back, she swung at it hard, a blow that could demolish a small building.  When her fist struck, though, it stopped against the door, sending a loud reverberating *_THUD*_.  The door remained completely undamaged; she instead pulled her fist back, grasping it in pain, "_OWWW!! _Ow ow ow ow ow…"

            "Are you okay?" Bubbles asked.

            Shaking her had a bit, waiting for the pain to subside, Buttercup gritted her teeth and said, "I'm fine…I'm fine…but, what the heck?"

            Bubbles turned to face the door and fired her eyebeams.  The beams struck the stone harmlessly.  Confused, she kept firing the beams, hoping that they'd cut through, but eventually, she couldn't keep them up anymore and stopped.  The stone cooled down where she had fired, and didn't show so much as a scratch.

            "I don't know what this is," Blossom said, examining the door closely, "but it's not stone.  _No_ stone is _that_ strong."

            "So now what?" Buttercup said, rubbing her hand slightly.

            "Well, maybe if all three of us…" Blossom mused, then tried gripping the door to open it again.  The other girls each found a part of the door to grab onto as well, and tugged as hard as they could…as they continued to strain, the stone very slowly began to slide.

            Buttercup grunted, "It's…working…"

            They kept it up, and eventually, they got the door open far enough.  All three of them collapsed, panting…Blossom leaned up against the wall to catch her breath and said, "Great…great job…girls…"

            "Thanks," Bubbles managed to say through heavy breaths.  "Now…what do…we do…?"

            The three of them stayed put until their strength was recovered, and Blossom motioned for the others to follow her through.  The corridor lead for a long ways, on a slight decline…it was starting to smell a little dank, with moisture built up on the walls and the occasional drips of water from the ceiling.  Along the sides of the corridor the entire way, however, was an intricately carved series of runes; they looked merely decorative instead of being something to read.  It struck Blossom as odd that _anything _could carve this stone, if _they _couldn't even chip away at it.

            Eventually, they came to a fork.  The path split in a Y-junction, heading off in two separate directions.  They listened carefully, but couldn't hear anything coming from either direction, even with their ultrasonic hearing.  "Which way _now?_" Buttercup asked.

            "I can't tell," Blossom said, examining the ground, which was now damp in this area.  "No footprints or tracks…he could have gone either way.  Let's split up and search, okay?"

            "But," Bubbles said hesitantly.  "But…shouldn't we stay together?"

            Blossom shook her head, "We'll cover more ground this way, and we're probably running out of time as it is.  You two take the right path; I'll take the left.  First one to find the Professor, get him to safety at once, you got that?"

            "Right," Buttercup nodded.  She grabbed hold of Bubbles' arm and flew off down the right path, pulling Bubbles with her.  Blossom smiled slightly and headed off down the other path.  Once all of them had disappeared from view, everything fell silent at the junction, save for the crackling of fire from torches on the wall.  As the flame light danced across the damp wall, it was joined a moment later by a shadow, which hesitated briefly before slinking off down the left path…

*          *            *

            "Do you think Blossom's okay?" Bubbles asked as she and Buttercup made their way down the tunnel.

            "For crying out loud, stop asking that already!" Buttercup replied, upset.  "It's only been like two minutes!"

            Bubbles glanced back behind her and said, "I'm just worried, that's all…I hope she'll be okay…"

            Buttercup shook her head and sighed.  _Why'd I have to get stuck watching Bubbles?_ she thought.  _I can handle things on my own.  I don't need…_

            Her thoughts trailed off as the two of them rounded a bend, emerging into a large, round room.  Carved out from the same stone as the rest of the place, there were three statues on separate parts of the walls, each depicting a different figure.  One was a warrior, holding a sword with the blade pointing down.  Another was a statue of a wise man, reading a scroll.  The last was a statue of a robed sorcerer, leaning on a long staff and stretching out its hand.  There were three cobweb-covered doorways leading out of the room at midpoints on the wall between the statues, one of which was the one they were entering from.  The statues were facing a raised pedestal in the center of the room, decorated like an altar, and atop which lay…

            Bubbles covered her mouth in alarm to stifle a cry.  Buttercup drifted closer, even though she bit her lip at the sight.  It was a corpse, lying splayed on the surface of the pedestal, like some sort of sacrificial victim.  It was difficult to tell if it had been burned or if the skin had been flayed, because it was too rotted to see.  A stench rose from it, and there was no doubt that whoever it was had been dead for some time.

            "I-is that…the pr…prof…" Bubbles stammered.

            "No, can't be," Buttercup said, speaking clearly despite the gruesome sight.  "It's been dead for too long, I think."  She turned away from it and said, "All right, we've got two other ways to go…which way should we take?  Or do you want to split up?"  Bubbles shook her head, her mouth clamped shut, so Buttercup added, "Fine.  So what do we do, then?  Flip a coin?"

            "I th-think maybe we…we should g…" Bubbles started to say, but then cut herself off, her mouth dropping open and her eyes widening in fear.  Buttercup blinked a few times at her sudden reaction, and turned around to see what she was looking at.  The corpse was starting to sit up, impossibly, climbing slowly back to its feet.

            _Zombie,_ Buttercup thought…even though it was surprising, she clenched her teeth and flew towards it, punching it square in the chest before it could stand all the way up again.  The zombie was knocked off the pedestal and landed on its back on the ground, but even so, started to sit up again.  Buttercup glanced over at Bubbles and noticed that she was still hovering there, watching.  "What are you waiting for?" Buttercup exclaimed.  "Help me out here!"

            Snapping out of her trance, Bubbles flew over and fired her eyebeams at the zombie's head.  The blast, which she had intended to just stun it, instead caused the head to explode, splattering the section of the wall it was near.  The thing collapsed to the ground again.

            "Haha!  Now _that's _what I'm talkin' about!" Buttercup said, grinning.  "Nice shot, Bubbles!"

            Bubbles smiled a little and said, "Thanks…so, I guess we pick a direction, then?"

            Nodding, Buttercup said, "Well, we can't just go back the way we c…"  She broke off as she caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and spun to face the zombie again…it was climbing back to its feet once more, despite the lack of a head.  Bubbles was frozen in terror, and Buttercup stammered, "Wh-wha?  But…but you…th-that's impossible…"

            It got all the way back to its feet, and a small lump of flesh on its neck started to bubble out, growing larger and larger, until it finally formed into the shape of its head again.  The eyes opened, and it gazed directly at them, the eyes burning with a greenish light.  When the girls stared back, it filled them with horror…their imaginations seemed to take over, images of this unstoppable dead thing cornering them and devouring them slowly and painfully…

            With a cry that was a mixture of rage and fear, Buttercup launched herself at the zombie and unleashed a flurry of punches, each one impacting and causing rotted bits of flesh to come free.  By the time she stopped, there wasn't much of the thing left; it was in pieces around that portion of the room.  Yet even as she caught her breath from the onslaught, she could see the pieces still twitching, still moving as if there was life in them, even after all that.  But it wasn't reforming this time.

            "Yeah…yeah, and _stay _dead this time…" Buttercup panted.  She laughed a little to herself, and turned to ask Bubbles if she was all right, but Bubbles wasn't there.  Glancing around, she noticed that the cobwebs covering the other two doorways out of the room had been disturbed, and that she must have flown off one of the directions.  Why they were both disturbed, she didn't know.  She called out, "Bubbles?"

            There was no answer.  She must have been out of earshot now…taking a deep breath, Buttercup chose one of the corridors at random and flew for it, hoping that it was the correct one.  _This is insane, _she thought.  _She's in trouble…we're all in trouble, if we don't get to the bottom of this, fast!  The professor was right…maybe we shouldn't have come…maybe we shouldn't have come…_

**_TO BE CONTINUED…_**


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7**

            Bubbles flew down the corridor as fast as she could for a while before finally stopping to look behind her.  Her breath came double-time as she watched to make sure nothing was following her.  She had lost control when she saw that dead thing get back up, as if all her fears were manifesting themselves into reality.  _Maybe I was just seeing things, _she tried to tell herself.  _Nothing can do that…nothing can!_

            It took her a few moments to realize that in her effort to distance herself from the zombie, she had also lost track of where she was.  Worst of all, Buttercup hadn't followed her, and was nowhere in sight.  Tentatively, she called out, "Buttercup?"  When she received no reply, she called, "Blossom?" in the hopes that _one _of them would hear her; however, nothing but silence greeted her.

            The silence was broken by a sudden piercing scream from behind her.  Bubbles spun around to look in the direction it came from.  It didn't sound like one of her sisters; it was an older, masculine scream.  She knew the Professor's voice, and didn't think this was it, but it was also too strained to tell for sure.  Without any further hesitation, she flew around the bend to see who—or what—it was.

            In the dim light of the tunnel, she finally spotted the silhouette of someone up ahead.  Whoever it was, they were struggling with something up in front of them, something that she couldn't make out…like an animal, but thinner, more skeletal.  She squinted to see better, but the person had already collapsed to the ground, and now the animal was nowhere to be seen.  She flew the rest of the way over to find out what had happened, and who the person was.

            It wasn't the professor…it was a slightly younger man with blonde hair, dressed in simple clothing, his face somewhat cut-up from the struggle he had just been in.  His outfit wasn't remarkable, although she spotted something affixed to his collar, a symbol of a set of claws gripping a skull.  It matched the professor's earlier description perfectly.  _The Cabal, _Bubbles realized.  _Then they really _are _here…_

            The man's eyes flew open as she was examining him.  She gave a startled gasp, backing up slightly, as he started to get back to his feet.  "A-are you all right?" she asked.  She wasn't sure why she would care how a Cabal member felt, but he was a living person, and that's all that mattered right now.  "Do you…do you need any help?"

            The man stared at her with unblinking eyes, and suddenly clenched his fist, swinging a punch.  The blow took Bubbles by surprise, knocking her back against the wall.  It didn't particularly hurt, but she wondered why he was doing this…she only wanted to help.  It was then that she noticed his stare…his face was expressionless, but his eyes seemed full of hatred, and he approached her again.

            "No, wait, stay back!" Bubbles shouted.  "I don't want to hurt y—_eek!_"  She dodged to one side as the man's fist slammed into the wall next to her.  She could swear that she heard some bones break in his hand from punching the near-impenetrable wall, but the man didn't even so much as flinch.  Instead, he merely turned to face her again.

            _That's it, _Bubbles thought, narrowing her eyes slightly.  _I don't know what's wrong with him, but I'm not going to just stand here and let him try to hit me!  He's one of the bad guys, after all!_  As the man raised his fist to swing it again, Bubbles countered with a strong kick to his gut, followed by a punch to the jaw.  Any normal person would have been laid flat by this move, but as it was, the man just stumbled back, slightly dazed.  This surprised her, but she shook it off and prepared to attack again.

            The man suddenly arched his back…every muscle in his body seemed to be straining against something, even though during this whole time, his expression hadn't changed in the slightest.  Bubbles halted for a moment, wondering what he was up to.  _He looks like he's in pain, _she thought, _but then why isn't he…_

            It happened so suddenly after that.  The man's chest just burst open, splitting straight down the center as though he had been ripped in half.  Something tore out from the inside of him, spraying blood and entrails about…part of her realized that it was the same thing as she had seen the man struggling with before.  It was fairly small, with long, thin limbs, ending in curved, scythe-like claws.  Its tiny, angular head gave an unearthly hiss at Bubbles, who was starring in horror at the sight she just witnessed, too scared to even utter a sound.  The reality dawned on her at that moment…whatever this creature was, it had burrowed itself into the man before, wearing his body like a skin…

            With a powerful leap, the creature pounced at Bubbles so quickly that she could barely react.  She had just enough time to hold her arms out in front of her protectively, and she ended up catching the creature, although the force from its impact knocked her out of the air, its skeletal frame pinning her to the ground.  She finally found her voice, and screamed as she tried desperately to keep the thing's claws away from her, slicing madly towards her face and just barely missing it.  They made several small cuts on her arm as they struggled…even though she was too terrified to think straight, she still knew what this meant: whatever the creature was, it was capable of hurting her.  _Oh my god,_ she thought frantically, _It's trying to get into me too it's gonna kill me and burrow inside me like it did with that guy oh my god oh my god…_

            Out of desperation, she reached up with both of her legs and kicked as hard as she could, finally knocking the thing away from her.  Now was her chance to kill it, but she still couldn't focus…she was too horrified at what she had been forced to see, and just fled down the corridor while it was stunned, towards a door on the far end.

            Rushing inside the small, empty room, Bubbles slammed the door shut behind her and kept her back braced against it, hoping that the creature wouldn't follow.  She began to cry through gasps of breath, the image of the creature exploding out from the man's chest replaying over and over in her mind, an image that would have been horrifying for even a normal person to see, let alone someone at _her_ tender age.  _I-I shouldn't have c-come here, _she thought, _I should've l-listened to the professor…but now it's t-too late…w-what am I gonna do…?_

*          *            *

            The strange markings along the walls still puzzled Blossom as she continued her direction down the tunnels.  It still didn't make any sense, how anything could have carved these tunnels when the rock was practically indestructible as it was.  Her best explanation was that it was made indestructible later on, _after _it had been carved.  _I just wish I knew what those carvings meant, _she thought.  _It might give some clue as to where we are._

            That was another thing that she couldn't figure out.  Was this some sort of ancient temple?  How long, she wondered, had it been hidden here?  Probably for ages…it looked like it pre-dated Townsville easily.  _Maybe it was constructed by some followers of those old ones that the Professor mentioned?  _She laughed to herself a little bit at that.  Even though this place was surely proof of what the professor had been talking about, it certainly wasn't proof that these old ones actually _existed_…

            Another scurrying sound from behind Blossom made her turn to look, landing for a moment.  Rats, maybe?  She wasn't sure, although she had the vague feeling she was being followed.  Still, she hadn't seen anything, even when doubling back a bit to check, so she figured it was just her imagination, maybe some loose rock settling or something.  Besides, she had more important things to worry about, and knew better than to be paranoid.

            Looking back in the direction she was heading, she was about to start flying again, when her surroundings abruptly started to change.  Everything began to melt and ripple around her, almost like a pond that someone had thrown a handful of stones into.  She froze, and blinked her eyes a few times just to make sure that it wasn't just the dusty air that was doing this.

            When Blossom finally cleared her eyes, she gasped as she realized that she was somewhere else entirely.  It looked like she was in a marble hall, a very tall and thin room, the ceiling opening up to an alien sky.  A single platform, like a bridge, was extended along the length of the hall, of which she was standing on one end; around it, there was nothing but darkness extending to the far depths beneath.  Statues lined the platform, most of them crumbled or too poorly chiseled to make out clearly.  At the far end was a larger, round platform, upon which there was what looked like a large, skeletal hand, closed up.

            There was a sound coming from around her, too…it was like the soft whisper of voices.  Blossom took a few cautious steps forward, heading for the opposite end, and even as she did so, the voices became louder, turning into a soft cacophony of screams.  It was then that she noticed the platform's surface was covered by hundreds of featureless faces, writhing and flowing towards the clenched hand on the other end.  Blossom wasn't sure what to make of it…it was as if a thousand tormented souls were trapped here, in this place.  The screams seemed to grow even louder as she made her way across, chilling her…she wanted to just turn and find a way out, but her curiosity drove her forward.

            As Blossom neared the skeletal hand, the fingers slowly spread open, as though in offering.  Something was resting in its palm, and though the nearly deafening screams around her seemed to protest, she got closer so that she could see it more clearly.  It was a book…a large book, in a thick binding, with more of those mysterious markings on the cover, like the ones she had seen along the walls.  She reached out for it slowly, and even as she did so, she felt its power…it was surely something not of this world…

            Taking a deep breath, she lifted the book from its cradle…the moment she laid her hands on it, she reeled as something impacted her mentally almost as soundly as if she had been physically struck.  Images, memories, flashed through her mind…memories that spanned centuries, with people and places of all sorts, speeding by almost too quickly for her to comprehend.  She saw in that instant everyone who had possessed the book, in all the ages it had been in existence…the combined knowledge of dozens of different people, offered to her at once if she could only piece it together…

            The flood of images ended just as suddenly as it had begun.  Blossom recovered from it, gasping for air as she looked around, realizing that she was back in the corridor where she was just before she had been pulled to that place.  _Was…was I dreaming? _she thought, although she had her answer almost as quickly as she had asked the question, as she glanced down and saw it in her arms, the book she had just claimed.

            She knew what it was…she knew it all, now.  The Tome of Eternal Darkness…created by Mantorok himself, but written by countless others.  The symbol on the cover she now recognized instantly as Mantorok's; she knew what the runes meant, finally, and glancing up at the designs on the walls, she understood them as well.  This was indeed a former temple of Mantorok…not his resting place, but a place of worship from his followers.

            Blossom continued down the path, carrying the Tome with her, now confident that she was heading in the right direction.  She had learned so much just from picking up this book, knowledge that would surely help in combating the evil here…but even as the knowledge was useful, it was also a bane.  It was the proof that she had sought, proof that the old ones really did exist, and proof of their power, their vileness…proof that she regretted ever wanting in the first place, now that she had it.  It may have given her valuable insight, but she also realized just how futile it would be to ever fight the old ones, just how powerful and unstoppable they really were, and just what it would mean for the world if they eventually succeeded…no, _when _they eventually succeeded.  Clutching the Tome tighter, she fought a tear from her eye, and prayed for the sake of humanity that she and her sisters could manage to hold the old ones at bay, if even for a little while…

*          *            *

            "Bubbles?  C'mon, where are you?" Buttercup called out down the corridor.  She was getting increasingly worried…if there were more of those zombies or worse running around, her sisters could be in great danger.  She still couldn't shake that awful feeling that began to creep up on her, that they might be out of their league here.  _No, that's crazy, _she told herself.  _You're a Powerpuff Girl, and the Powerpuff Girls never lose!  You're stronger than anything they can toss at you!  Just concentrate on finding the Cabal, and the professor…_

            She came to a set of three doors at the end of the corridor.  As she reached for the handle of one of them, she felt a chill, like a sixth sense.  Hesitating only briefly, she chided herself and grasped the handle to carefully pull the door open and peek inside.  The room was dark, without any light whatsoever other than that which was coming through the door she had just opened.  Sliding it open wider, she tried to get a better look.

            Every square inch of the walls, ceiling, and even the floor of the room were covered with what looked like intricate statues set into them.  Looking closer, however, Buttercup realized that they were people…each one of them frozen in place behind something that looked like concrete, as though their bodies were piled up and the concrete poured right over them, molded into the walls of the room.  Judging by their writhing positions, they look like they had been buried alive.  She shuddered slightly at the thought, and was about to turn away from the room, when she spotted the light glinting from something in the middle, and squinted to make it out.

            It looked like a small amulet or a pendant, a silver charm attached to a length of chain.  From a distance, it didn't look very remarkable, except for the fact that it was just hovering there, in the center of the room, suspended by some unknown means.  She looked at it in surprise, and then decided to hover carefully towards it.  As she passed through the room, something else caught her eye: there were a few skeletons in various places across the room, broken apart and with gnaw marks on the bone.  There were also pools of blood around some of them…and the pools looked oddly fresh.  She swallowed, and focused back on the pendant again.

            Buttercup reached it, and looked at it closely in wonder, at the way it was just hovering in place.  Five small runes were etched in the surface of it, and now that she was this close, she could see that it was glowing, very faintly, with a soft green light.  It was a beautiful silver pendant, though; she had to admit.  Reaching out carefully, she grasped the chain, pulling it from the air just as easily as if she were picking it up from a table.  _This has to be important somehow, _she thought.  _Maybe it's some clue about this place…well, even if it isn't, it's a nice thing to keep…_

            The runes on the surface abruptly glowed a brighter green than before, and she almost dropped the pendant in shock.  As the runes glowed, she heard a vaguely feminine voice echo from around her, although it sounded more like many similar voices speaking together…and oddly, it vibrated through the center of her body as well…

            _[…tier…aretak…pargon…Xel'lotath…pargon…]_

            What happened next was the last thing she had expected…one of the shapes that were stuck in the concrete on the wall flashed green, and the stone melted away, becoming flesh and blood once again.  It pulled free from the wall, a decayed corpse, much like the one she had seen before, except with a few bandages binding it together almost like a mummy, and with a sickly green hue to its rotted flesh.  Buttercup gasped, and backed up slightly as it lumbered for her…but as she did, there were more flashes across the room she could see…other corpses coming to life and pulling free from the walls.

            Continuing to back up, Buttercup bumped into the wall, but against something soft, instead of hard like stone.  She looked back and saw that the one right against the wall where she was at had come to life as well, and was reaching for her.  With a startled shout, she grabbed hold of the arm to stop it, and yanked, ripping it free from the zombie's shoulder.  Her mouth fell open in complete disbelief, however, when she saw that although the physical arm had been pulled away, a strange, glowing ghostly limb was still present where the arm had been before.

            Before she could react further, it grabbed her shoulder with the ghostly limb…its touch felt like acid, and she screamed, pulling away from it.  She barely got a foot distance before one of the corpses on the ground reached up with a twisted hand and grabbed hold of her leg, and another hand grasped her by the hair, from a zombie that had half emerged from the ceiling.  Buttercup kicked hard to try and free herself, but even as she did, more and more of them were coming out of the walls, until she was completely surrounded by them.  _Oh god, oh god!!_ she thought.  _Let me out of here!!  PLEASE!!_  She looked around frantically for the exit through the mass of zombies as she tried to fight them back, before finally spotting the small column of light…her heart sank as she saw the light narrowing, the door to the room slowly swung shut.  With a dull thud, it sealed, swallowing the room in total darkness, and Buttercup panicked, thrashing out around herself blindly and screaming as loud as she possibly could…

**_TO BE CONTINUED…_**


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER 8**

            Bubbles pressed on, further down the twisting corridors of the temple…what else could she do?  She still had to find the professor, but that wasn't foremost on her mind…she wanted to distance herself from whatever it was she saw earlier, so that hopefully it wouldn't continue to follow her.  But she still felt its eyes, even though it wasn't near, like it was watching her at all times, waiting to sneak up on her.  Or were those the eyes of other horrors, lurking in the shadows?  She couldn't be sure…

            After traveling a bit further, she slumped down against the wall to rest, looking at the deep cuts in her arm.  She recalled what the professor had told them, how their powers couldn't stand against the might of the old ones.  _My god,_ she thought.  _It's true…all of it's true…everything the professor told us about these things…I can't believe it…and we…we can't do anything to fight them…can we?  They can hurt us, they won't die…that one even grew his head back, just from nothing…_

            As Bubbles inspected the cuts, her imagination began to run wild, and she wondered if a new creature would just grow if even the smallest bit of it was left behind on her…maybe a bit of flesh, left deep within the wounds she received.  The very idea of its possibility made her shudder.  _That's ridiculous,_ she thought.  _But they…they can do it, can't they?  What if…no, no that's crazy, just forget it!_  Try as she might, though, she couldn't pull her eyes away from her cuts…it was so bizarre by itself just to see her own blood, as it happened so rarely in the past.  She wanted to look away, but she stared, imagining bits of that creature still lingering in her arm, growing larger by the minute…

            A brief pulse of pain through her arm snapped her out of her thoughts, but also chilled her, and she stared even more intently at the cuts now.  She watched in disbelief, as her skin seemed to move, as if on its own, bulging out slightly, like something was pressing from the other side.  Her breathing quickened, and she clenched her teeth as she felt pain shoot through her arm again.  _No, it can't be,_ she thought, _it's impossible…_

            All at once, her skin burst open on the spot, causing a brief spray of blood to splatter outwards, and a scream to escape her lips.  A pair of tiny claws dug their way out, clamping down on the edges of the gaping wound it had just created.  Thrusting her arm out reflexively further away from herself, Bubbles pressed her back up tighter against the wall and turned her head away, covering her face with her other arm and clenching her eyes shut, shaking violently and thinking, _No no no no, this isn't happening…this…this isn't real!  This can't be happening!!_

            Too paralyzed to do anything else, she waited for the inevitable strike the thing would make on her.  It didn't come, though…still shaking, she managed to open one eye and look out from behind her arm, glimpsing tentatively at her wounds.  There was nothing, though…no gaping tear in her flesh, no clawed creature, nothing except the cuts she had before.  She still stared with one eye, for almost a whole minute after that, watching and waiting, but it never changed.

            Letting out a shaky sigh of relief, she closed her now tear-filled eyes and hung her head.  Her thoughts were a jumble, trying to sort out what had happened, and as those same thoughts screamed in protest, reminding her endlessly that she should just try and escape, she became aware of a whisper beneath them…a voice in the darkness, speaking her name.  She wouldn't have been so concerned, except that the voice wasn't her own.  It wasn't even a voice that she recognized, and yet it felt so familiar, like it had been with her forever.

            Bubbles' thoughts briefly turned to Ulyaoth's essence, deep within her…was that what she was hearing?  Was it trying to speak to her?  And how long has it been doing so?  Has it been speaking to her for her entire life, telling her what to do, affecting her behavior, which she passed off as mere conscience?  More and more voices seemed to well up from inside her, growing louder, and she could no longer tell what was her own thoughts, or that of Ulyaoth's…she tried to shut it out, to just ignore it…

            Her eyes opened as she realized that it wasn't _all_ in her head…some of the voices were coming from the distance.  _The Cabal, _she wondered, _or maybe the professor?  Or both?_  Gathering what was left of her courage, she pulled herself away from the wall and started off towards it, giving only the briefest of glimpses to her arm as she moved forward…

*          *            *

            Total panic flooded every fiber of Buttercup's being…that, and pain from the claws in the darkness raking through her flesh.  Between her terror and the pain, she couldn't even think straight…she continued to swing her fists blindly, knocking back whoever she could, but it seemed almost like each corpse she knocked away was replaced by two more.  There was no way out…not through the raw mass of dead that surrounded her.  This room, much like with the corpses within, would surely become her tomb…

            Forcing her eyes open, she blasted with her eyebeams, giving it all she had.  It was a final, desperate move, as she knew that her eyebeams wouldn't be powerful enough to stop even one zombie, let alone a roomful.  But something unexpected happened when she did… the beams struck the zombie directly in front of her, and at once, the rags that bound it together were set aflame.  The fire spread quickly across the zombie, and it fell back, thrashing around as if to try and put it out.

            Buttercup could see now, too…the flames had cast a dim light in the room, briefly illuminating the shapes of dozens more corpses surrounding her.  Realizing that this was her only chance, she spun in a circle, firing her eyebeams in a wide arc to hit as many of them as she could.  Incredibly, it worked…all of them stumbled back or collapsed as the fire consumed them, and as they began to fall, she could spot the edges of the door in the dim light.  She charged for it immediately, thinking, _I'm going to make it I'm going to make it!!_

            She reached the door and, without any further hesitation, swung it open and charged through, slamming it shut behind her.  Catching her breath, she collapsed out of the air, landing on her stomach on the ground, and coughed, spitting blood out from her mouth.  Even though she was too weak to look at herself properly, blood began to collect around her, and she knew that she was hurt very badly.  The pain actually began to build, and she clenched her eyes tightly, crying out in agony.  _I made it out, _she thought…_but I'm…I'm gonna die anyway…I'm sorry, Professor…I…I tried, but…I can't…go on…_  With a dull throb, Buttercup felt her heart pounding in her chest, and as she began to slip towards unconsciousness, she could hear a voice, not unlike the one she heard when she picked up the pendant.  It echoed through her mind, and she listened, certain it would be the last thing she would ever hear…

            She barely noticed when she heard another sound…a deep, evil voice, like the darkest creature imaginable.  Unlike the other voice, though, this one was clearer, and it came from right next to her rather from within…__

            […_narokath… santak…pargon…Chattur'gha…pargon_…]

            Abruptly, she felt different.  Warmth spread through her unlike anything she had felt before.  Her pain had almost entirely vanished, and she felt her strength returning as well.  Opening her eyes in shock, she lifted her head from the ground, her gaze searching the room and finally settling on a familiar shape.  Blossom was hovering near her, with some strange-looking book in her hands, and was looking back at her with concern.  "Buttercup," she said, "are you all right?"

            "B…Blossom?" Buttercup managed to say, as she carefully lifted herself from the ground, looking at herself incredulously.  There were still a few small cuts and bruises across her, but for the most part, she was fine.  Certainly no sign of the massive injuries that had created the pool of blood still surrounding her on the ground.  "Blossom, wha…what happ…"

            Blossom dropped the book she was holding and flew forward, grasping Buttercup in a tight hug, "Oh, thank goodness…I-I heard your scream, and rushed over, a-and when I saw you…I wasn't sure I could save you in time…"

            Buttercup hugged back and said, "Thank you…I thought…I was so sure I was gonna die there…what on Earth did you do?"

            Releasing her, Blossom went back over and picked the book up, staring at the cover as she said, "This book I found…I don't fully understand it, but it…it gave me the power to…to tap into the essences of the old ones, the ancients…with it, I cast a spell that healed your wounds."

            "It's a good thing you found it, then," Buttercup said.  "What else does it say?"

            Blossom briefly let her eyes fall and answered, "Too much."  She looked over at Buttercup finally and continued, "The danger's even greater than I ever imagined.  We need to find the professor immediately.  Where's Bubbles?"

            "I was looking for her," Buttercup replied, then her eyes widened as she quickly realized the danger she was in, "Oh man, I hope she's not running into more of these things, too!"

            "Bubbles can take care of herself," Blossom said.  "We have more important things to worry about right now…"

            Buttercup shook her head, "No way, we can't just leave her!  You don't know what these things are like!  They can't be stopped, and they just keep com—…"

            "Our first priority is to stop the Cabal from unlocking Mantorok's powers," Blossom interrupted.  "Everything else comes second, do you understand?  _Everything_."  Buttercup wanted to protest, but Blossom spoke firmly, and there was something in her eyes she could see…it was like she was trying to mask some great fear.  She knew something that Buttercup didn't, and it scared her…

            With a final sigh, Buttercup reluctantly agreed, "Fine…let's go, then."  The two of them picked one of the other doors and headed for it together.  She added, "I hope you know what you're doing…I've seen these things, and I know what they can do."

            "So have I, Buttercup," Blossom told her, glancing at the cover of the Tome once again.  "So have I…"  Opening the door, the two of them disappeared from the room, closing it behind them.  All was silent, now, except for the shadow of some unseen beast that followed not far behind…it paused briefly over the puddle of fresh blood left from Buttercup, gave a low growl of appreciation, and moved on towards the door they had left through…

*          *            *

            Fiends, demons, nightmares…Bubbles knew they were just around every corner, waiting to strike, to do horrible things to her, and she was defenseless against them.  Even her powers, which she had come to rely on her entire life, were useless here.  If they cornered her, she wouldn't be able to fight them, or they would kill her…she wouldn't be able to flee, since the walls were impenetrable to even their great strength…she wouldn't be able to plead for her life, as they probably wouldn't understand her, and she suspected they wouldn't listen anyway…

            Still, she pressed on, towards the voices she heard.  If there was even a chance that the professor was still alive, then there was a chance that they could be saved.  The professor would know what to do…he always knew what to do.  She knew that he'd have the answer, and it was only a matter of finding him.

            Questions began to build in her mind, though…did the professor really have the answer?  What if he didn't?  What if, despite everything he's done, she and her sisters, and all of mankind, were still doomed?  Or what if he was already dead, the answers lost to all of them forever?  What if their efforts was all futile, right from the start?  She shook her head and tried to drive out these thoughts, but they persisted, nagging her endlessly…

            The voices in the distant became clearer as Bubbles approached, and she focused on them.  It sounded like two men…she didn't recognize either of their voices, but listened in as they spoke to one another.  "But what next?" the first voice spoke.  "These rituals won't keep them at bay forever."

            "They can, and they must," the second voice declared firmly.  "Mantorok's influence is strong here, and he will do everything to keep us from taking his essence for our own."

            The first voice resumed, although not with much confidence, "But…the beasts our men have sighted are not Mantorok's doing at all…what of them?"

            "The essences of the other ancients are near to us," the second voice said.  "Their minions are drawing out of their dwellings and gathering here.  This is a good sign, for it means we will not have far to look."  As Bubbles listened to this, she glanced down and held a hand to her chest.  The essence of Ulyaoth, even though it was contained deep within her, was still able to affect things around her?  Was this what was causing all the monsters in the temple?  This, and the essences contained in Blossom and Buttercup?

            "But it is far more resistance than we expected!" the first voice protested.  "Our men can't withst—…"

            "They _will _hold!" the second voice interrupted angrily.  "I will not tolerate failure, not when we're this close!  They need only to last until the final incantations are completed, and the beasts will no longer be a problem.  Now, complete your work here…I must return to the summoning chamber."

            Reluctantly, the first voice said, "As you wish, Ireseth.  I will do as you command…"

            Footsteps left out of the room, and Bubbles decided to edge closer, trying to search her memory to figure out where she had heard that name before…Ireseth…it sounded so familiar.  All at once, she remembered…the professor's journal!  He mentioned the name before…that was the leader of the Cabal!  She narrowed her eyes and decided she'd better head in, carefully, to see what they're doing, and if she can do anything to stop it.  _Maybe,_ she thought, _I can do this myself…I hope I can…if we can't find the professor, then I'll _have_ to, I'll have no choice…_

*          *            *

            As Blossom and Buttercup made their way through the corridors deeper into the temple, Buttercup started to feel more and more nervous…in a straight fight, she could handle anything, and she was quite proud of that.  But these things…they wouldn't stop, and fought endlessly, long after they should have been able to.  How do you stop something that won't give up?  They were relentless…Buttercup knew that every moment she stayed down here, she risked death, while _they _risked _nothing._  Her resolve was shaken, especially after her own brush with death.  She wanted to run, but two things kept here there: determination to find the professor, and her thirst to get even on these things for besting her, no matter how futile that may be.

            She kept hearing sounds behind her, scurrying noises, like rats or something, but every time she turned to look, there was nothing.  Blossom noticed her repeated glances back the way they came and asked, "What's wrong?"

            "I dunno," Buttercup told her.  "I just have the funny feeling we're being followed…"

            "I've felt it, too," Blossom said.  "But in a way, we are…the ancients have not taken their eyes off us the whole time we've been in here.  They're watching our every move."  They entered into a room as they spoke, a square room sunken down into the ground by small sets of steps leading up to several doors along the edge.

            Buttercup looked at her and asked, "How do you know all this?  It can't be all from that book.  You sound more paranoid than m—…"  Cutting herself off, she shook her head, "Look, can you tell anything about this place?  Which way do we need to go?"

            "That way," Blossom answered, pointing at one of the doors.  "This will lead us to a chamber where it was common to call upon the old ones.  My guess is that they'll use it for whatever ritual they're planning on."

            "Well, then, what are we waiting for?  Let's…" Buttercup began, but then she heard it again, the scurrying sound…only it sounded closer, and more hurried, like something was running towards them.  She looked in the direction, but still saw nothing… _Is my imagination playing tricks on me?_ she wondered…

            Something slammed into her, hard, knocking her out of the air and pinning her on the ground against some steps.  It faded into view, a hideous lump of red flesh, hunched over, with large claws and legs, and a toothy mouth.  She just gaped at it as it pulled back its head like it was about to strike.  Instead, though, an invisible force seemed to tear into Buttercup's throat from the _inside,_ choking her and forcing her mouth open.  Paralyzed from the grip it had on her, she could only watch wide-eyed in horror as she both felt and saw a stream of blood pour out from her mouth, flowing through the air as the creature began drawing the blood into its own mouth.  Buttercup couldn't move, and couldn't speak, but even if she could, she was too terrified to do so…

            All of this happened in a matter of seconds, and was interrupted as Blossom cried out, slamming into the side of the creature's head with a kick.  The creature was knocked aside, and the grip on Buttercup was broken…she clutched at her neck, coughing.  The creature, in the meantime, became invisible once again, vanishing completely.

            Still gasping for air, Buttercup cried out, "What the heck was _that?!_"

            "Shh!" Blossom said, focusing intently and trying to listen for the thing's footsteps as it moved around the room, but she quickly lost track of it, the sounds echoing against the walls of the room.  She didn't let down her guard for a minute, as she knew it would try to strike at them again at any moment.  But worst of all, she knew this was delaying them from their main goal, and every second counted now.  _The ancients are doing this, _she thought.  _They want us to fail.  They want Mantorok's power to be unleashed, because they know it'll be just what they need to free themselves onto our world.  They're going to do everything in their power to keep us from stopping them._  With this thought in mind, Blossom felt that it was hopeless, now more than ever…

**_TO BE CONTINUED…_**


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER 9**

            The creature circled Blossom and Buttercup slowly…they were aware it was doing so, but didn't know where it was exactly.  Blossom listened carefully, hoping to hear any kind of sound that would give away its position, but the creature moved with stealth, leaving no tracks and making no sound, a phantom just beyond their senses.  They both knew it could strike again at any time…

            "What now?" Buttercup asked, trying her best to mask her fear.  She had never felt so helpless in combat before…this thing had nearly paralyzed her with one attack, and if it hadn't been for Blossom's intervention, she would surely have died right then and there.  She felt weak, powerless…a mere child, up against someone of superior strength.  Though in the past she would have hated to rely on Blossom's aid, she was dependant on it here, and didn't think twice about it.

            Blossom continued to listen carefully…it was hard to pinpoint any sounds, what with all the background noise in the halls of this temple.  Water dripping, gusts of air, the distant rumbling of the city far above them…she narrowed her eyes, though, and focused on the gusts of air.  They seemed at first to be merely wind, perhaps drafts from these tunnels, but she began to sense a rhythm amongst them.  _Is that the creature's breathing? s_he wondered…_No wait…no, it's just a draft…_  She was getting too edgy…every little noise was starting to sound threatening, imagining hundreds of these things surrounding them…

            She glanced down at the Tome of Eternal Darkness, still in her hands.  She recalled something from it, a spell which could force the unseen to reveal itself, and closed her eyes to focus.  Drawing on the power of the Tome, she stretched out with her spirit and called forth the old ones' powers.  Buttercup fell back slightly in awe as a circle of five runes appeared near Blossom's feet, casting an unearthly blue glow into the air above them…a voice, which Blossom now recognized as Ulyaoth's, echoed each rune as it activated in succession: [_…narokath… redgormor… pargon… Ulya--…_]

            Before it could complete, however, the creature suddenly slammed into her, causing her to yelp in surprise.  She was knocked away from the circle of runes, which immediately disintegrated in a brief shower of sparks…the Tome flew from her arms, and as she hit the ground from the blow, it landed across the room, sliding across the stone floor until coming to a rest.  The creature, in the meantime, had become partially visible, pulling back its arm in preparation to strike at the stunned Blossom with its claws.

            Buttercup yelled, "No!!" and leapt towards the creature's back, hoping to deliver a solid punch to it.  Noticing her out of the corner of its eye, however, it spun to face her, using the momentum to swing its bared claws across her chest.  With a cry, Buttercup felt the claws rake through her flesh and backed off, clutching her midsection.  This had given Blossom time to recover, however, and she got up from the ground, flying over and grabbing the creature by the arm.  She pulled with all her strength, lifting it up from the ground and hurling it as hard as she could against the wall.  It struck against the stone with an audible *_crunch_*, collapsing in an immobile heap on the ground.

            Blossom let out the breath she was holding, and flew over to help Buttercup, saying, "Are you all right?"

            Breathing heavily herself, Buttercup lifted her arms away from her chest, looking at the deep cuts the beast's claws had left.  "I'll…I'll be okay…" she said, looking back up at Blossom…as she did, she noticed that her sister looked particularly drained, as she was sweating heavily.  "What's wrong?" she quickly added.

            "Nothing, it's just…" Blossom replied, then cut herself off to wipe the sweat from her forehead.  "It's just, trying to cast those spells is a bit draining, that's all…listen, I…I don't think I can heal you again just yet…"

            Nodding, Buttercup said, "All right…I'll be fine…"  She didn't really want to admit how awful she really felt…surges of pain were jabbing her every few seconds from the wounds, and it took a lot of effort to steel herself against it.  The effort was sapping her strength, but she ignored it and said, "Now what?"

            "I don't know," Blossom said.  "I just don't know anymore…it was a big mistake to come here, I know that all too well now.  Who _knows_ what we're…"

            "Shh!" Buttercup said, waving an arm to quiet her, cocking her head to listen.  Blossom fell silent and listened carefully as well, trying to see if she could hear whatever it was that Buttercup had heard.  There was nothing but silence, and the background noise she had heard before, but a second later, it came again: a low, faint moan in the distance…not an unearthly sound, but rather, a human one…

*          *            *

            Bubbles kept her teeth clenched as she flew into the room where she had heard voices shortly before.  The Cabal members had already left, but their work was still around the room.  There were small stone altars, arranged in a circle around a pedestal in the center, upon which runes were carved.  They seemed to glow faintly, but Bubbles didn't know if she was imagining it or not; she was becoming less and less sure of her senses with every passing moment…

            There was something on a few of the altars, covered with sheets.  Most of them were man-sized, and she knew what they probably were…sacrificial victims, to whatever horrid ritual they were doing.  As she looked across them, she saw bloodstains soaking through the tops of the sheets, and knew that her intuition was right.  _More death, _she thought.  _No, no more death…I…I have to stop this, before even more people die…_  In a way, she felt as though she was failing as a superhero, to have such terrible things happening right in the city she was protecting.

            One of the victims drew her attention…it was a lot smaller than the others, child-size.  The fact that they would use children in these rituals just made her all the more sickened by it, and yet, she felt a draw of morbid curiosity, wanting to know the identity of the child, to see if it was someone she knew.  She wanted to look away, but her eyes were cringing, she flew over slowly, and reached down to pull off the sheet to get a closer look…

            What she saw caused her to cry out in shock.  The child under the sheet was _herself_…the unmistakably large blue eyes were rolled back in her head, mouth frozen in what was probably a cry of pain, blood streaked across her blonde hair and the remains of the blue dress she wore…there a gaping wound in the center of the chest, and it looked as though her heart had been cut out.  But it was _her_…the sight of herself so horribly mutilated caused her to hover back, covering her mouth even though it did precious little to stifle her cries.  _No no, this can't be!_ she thought…_I-I'm…I'm…I'm n-not dead…I'm not dead!  I'm here, I'm not dead!!_

            Bubbles approached it again, and suddenly realized that it _wasn't _her…the little girl had blonde hair and pigtails, similar to her own, and even had blue eyes.  How she mistook it for herself, she didn't know…but she came to realize that it could just as easily have been her.  If the Cabal caught her, would they sacrifice her like this?  In fact, would they cut her chest open to get at the essence of Ulyaoth that she carried within her?  The thought made her shudder violently, and she whisked the sheet back over the girl, turning away and closing her eyes.  Still, she couldn't put the thoughts out of her mind…

            Her head was pounding…she held the sides of her head as her thoughts spoke to her: _You can't stop them, they're going to kill you…No, they won't kill you, you'll be a zombie, or worse…It won't stop with you, it will only start with you, and continue to every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth…You can't let it happen!…You can't stop it!…_ It was becoming difficult to sort them out, which were here own thoughts and which were voices that she was hearing, from within or possibly from around her…

            At that moment, footsteps alerted her, and she snapped her head to the direction it came from with a gasp.  Two men had run into the room, stopping when they caught sight of her.  Both of them were clad in the same garb as the Cabal member she had seen before.  They must have recognized her, because they kept their distance.

            _They did all this, _Bubbles thought.  _They're the ones responsible…_ She wanted to fly over and beat them senseless, make them pay for what they did, but she stayed where she was, her thoughts from before whirling through her mind.  Everything was happening way too fast for her…she no longer knew _what_ to think, or what to believe…

            One of the Cabal members spoke up, "What are you doing here?"

            "I…" Bubbles started to say, then she took a deep breath and tried to focus, staring intently at them.  "Professor Utonium…where is he?"

            The second Cabal member replied, "I don't know who you're…"

            "_You're lying!_" Bubbles cried out, flying over and grabbing him by the shirt.  The other Cabal member tried to grab her, but with a quick backhand, Bubbles sent him tumbling across the room.  He hit the wall and slumped to the ground, unconscious.  Bubbles turned her attention back to the man she held now and shouted, "He came here earlier!  Do you know where he is?  Tell me!  _Now!!_"

            The man was startled, but he stammered, "W-we…we captured s-some guy earlier that was s-snooping around…"

            Bubbles nodded, "And?"

            "And…" the man continued, "…and…and my lord Ireseth…o-ordered his…his sacri-…sacrifice…"

            Hearing this, Bubbles stared wide-eyed into the man's eyes, horrified…in a very small voice, barely a whisper, she said, "…no…you…you _couldn't_…"

            "I'm telling you the truth…" he insisted.  "It was an hour ago, so he's long dead, girl…you'd best leave, and not come back…"

            "No…no!"  Bubbles said, releasing him and backing up.  She couldn't believe it, not after all this…not that mankind would face its darkest hour now, outside of her control to stop it.  And the professor, the one person who could help, was dead?  She wouldn't accept it, she told herself over and over, _No no no, it isn't true…but it is!  No, it's not!  It's not real!  IT'S REAL, FACE IT, you and everyone else are dead!  You're living and breathing, but you're dead!  Nothing you can do will stop them!  You are all going to die, you are all going to face unspeakable horrors and DIE!  There's no avoiding it anymore, you never had a chance, END IT you will not stop END IT ALL maybe the other girls NO can save NO THEY CAN'T…_

            Bubbles grasped her head, which was pounding again, throbbing as her own thoughts hammered her without mercy…she lowered to the ground, falling to her knees and cried out, the cry of a tortured mind.  As she cried out, a blue fire burst into being around her, setting her aflame even though she didn't seem to notice it, and obscuring her from the eyes of the Cabal member, who stared on uncomprehendingly, listening as her cry echoed down the corridors of the temple…

*          *            *

            "That voice came from this way!" Buttercup called out, heading down one of the nearby passageways, with Blossom right behind her.  This corridor seemed different than the others…it was a long one, set with several dozen small doors on both sides, heavily barred doors that were shut and locked firmly.  _A dungeon, _Buttercup thought.  _So many of them…is this where they kept people for their rituals, like the Professor was saying?_

            A quick glance through the barred windows on each door as they flew along told them that most of the cells were unoccupied…likely, if they were used, their occupants had already been removed.  Or perhaps they weren't used at all.  Blossom hoped it was the latter…she didn't want the Cabal to have claimed this many victims, even though she knew it probably paled in comparison to their victims over the years.  These cells were empty, but one of them had to be the source of the moan they heard…

            "Over here!" Buttercup shouted, stopping by one door.  "Look!"  Blossom flew over and looked into the cell Buttercup was looking through, and brightened slightly as she saw the occupant.  Professor Utonium was lying on his back on a plain metal bed sticking out of the wall…he looked injured, but otherwise alive, although he looked barely conscious.  Without any further hesitation, the girls unlocked the door and pulled it open together.

            The professor stirred, rolling his head to the side to see who was coming in.  With a look of amazement, he grunted, "…G-girls?"

            Going up to him, Blossom nodded and said, "You'll be all right, Professor; we're here to rescue you…we read your journal, and knew we'd find you here."  She looked over his wounds, noticing that he had been beaten pretty badly, and said, "What happened to you?"

            "I…I tried to…to stop them…" the professor told them.  "But they're…too many of them…couldn't…and then Ireseth, h-he…his men caught me…trying to steal the…the essence of Mantorok…"

            "You didn't stop them?" Buttercup asked.

            Shaking his head slightly, the professor continued, "No…I tried…but they…they locked me up…sent me over here for…for a sacrifice…but then the…the minions of the…old ones…started to show up…and they just locked me up…in here, instead…"  He tried to sit up, but winced in pain and laid back down.

            "Take it easy, Professor," Blossom told him.  "We'll get you to safet—…"  She hesitated for a moment, as the thought occurred to her…_He never stopped them.  They're going to unlock the powers of the essence, so there _is _no place safe…not anymore._  Tucking the Tome of Eternal Darkness under one arm, she picked up the professor's arm and hoisted it over her back to lift him up, with Buttercup following suit with his other arm.

            The professor looked relieved, but then said, "I told you not to…to come after me…why did you?  Didn't you realize…the danger…?"

            "We could never leave you behind," Blossom said.  "You mean too much to us."

            Nodding, the Professor glanced around and said, "…but where's…where's Bubbles?"

            "We got separated," Buttercup said.  "I don't know where she is now…we were going to look for her once we get you out of here, and…"

            Despite his pain, the professor's eyes widened in shock, and he spoke strongly, "No, we have to find her…fast…"

            The urgency in the professor's tone made Blossom hesitate…she knew that something was wrong, and that despite what she had learned from the Professor's journal and the Tome, she may not have fully understood something.  With a feeling of dread slowly creeping across her, she asked, "Why?"

            "You remember how I said…in my journal," the professor answered, "how your personalities are…are what's keeping the essences…contained within you under control?"  The girls nodded, and he continued, "It is Bubbles' emotional strength…her very sanity…that's keeping Ulyaoth's essence contained…it was the perfect counter to Ulyaoth's power…but in the halls of this temple, she…she could lose that control.  There are those that strike…that strike directly at your mind…if her control slips, all it would take is…something to shatter it…and the results would be catastrophic if it happens…"

            Buttercup felt cold now, too, and said slowly, "…What would happen?"

            The professor started to answer, but before he could, he stayed quiet, in shock, as did the other girls.  They all heard it faintly…a scream of terror, echoing through the halls in the distance…a scream that was familiar, but at the same time so vastly different than they remember.  All three of them glanced at each other as they listened, and the scream fell silent a moment later…

*          *            *

            As Bubbles got back to her feet, the blue fire that surrounded her slowly vanished, although an aura of energy remained.  She lifted her head and stared out at the Cabal member, who took a few steps back from what he saw.  She had changed...her skin was grayed and looked thin, almost to the point of transparency.  Her hair had streaks of silver throughout it, with the pigtails undone, and her mouth was unsmiling, carrying the slightest of frowns.  Most changed, however, were here eyes...two black pools of darkness, yet with a piercing blue light emanating from the center.  She opened her mouth and spoke, her voice echoing both as Bubbles and Ulyaoth together: "Now begins the Eternal Darkness, and the suffering of all mankind..."

**_TO BE CONTINUED…_**


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER 10**

            Bubbles turned and stared at the Cabal member, who was now starting to back slowly out of the room.  He froze in his tracks, though, when Bubbles gaze met his, and she demanded, "Where is it?"

            "Where's…w-where's what?" the man stammered.

            "The essence of Mantorok." Bubbles told him, narrowing her eyes.  "Tell me where it is.  _Now_."

            Shaking his head, "I…I don't know…I don't…"

            She started to hover towards him slowly, raising an arm to point at him, and said, "If you do not know, then you are of no use to me…"  Her arm began to glow with a blue flame, and the man was suddenly lifted into the air, unable to move.  His muscles were tightened, and he tried to speak, but it only came out as a choked cry.  She repeated, "One last time, tell me where it is!"

            The man managed to grunt out, "I swear…I…d-don't…know…wh-where…it…"  He never finished, because in the next instant, a bright blue energy flared up inside him, and he just exploded, splattering outwards all at once.  Only the man's skeleton stayed put, and when Bubbles lowered her arm, the skeleton clattered to the ground, shattering into pieces.  She gave his remains a brief glance before she looked up at the doorway he was standing in and, without wasting any further time, flew through it, intent on finding the essence before the cabal could unlock its powers…

*          *            *

            "Was that Bubbles?" Buttercup asked, still carrying the professor by one of his arms.  "It…it sounded just like her…"

            "Not _just _like her," Blossom replied, from the other arm.  "She never screamed like _that_ before.  Something's terribly wrong here…"  She looked over at the professor and said, "I'm going to fly ahead and see if I can find her.  Can you walk?"

            "I'll be fine," the professor said, testing his legs out weakly on the ground.  "I think I can make it…"  He winced a little as he tried to stand on his own.

            "Hold on a moment," Blossom said, pulling out the Tome from under her arm.  She opened it up and started going through the pages, looking for the spell she used earlier, the one used for healing.  She wasn't sure she'd be able to cast it, though, as using it on Buttercup earlier left her a bit drained, as well as her second, failed attempt.  But she knew she had to try anyway.

            As she was looking for it, the professor turned to face her, noticing the book.  "That's… the Tome of Eternal Darkness, isn't it?" the professor asked.

            "Yes," Blossom answered, then asked curiously, "You've seen it before?"

            "I've read about it," the professor told her.  "While I was researching the artifacts, I found some mention of an old book, said to have been created by Mantorok and given to mortals for some unknown reason.  Most of those who have possessed it were either driven mad, or killed…"

            Looking up from the book, Blossom said, "Killed…?" with a brief look of fear in her eyes.

            "Mostly through exerting themselves too much to try and stop the plots of the old ones," the professor nodded.  "Learning too much, getting in too deeply…"

            Blossom stared at the book, and understood.  The Tome had given her a unique understanding through the eyes of those who had possessed it before, an understanding of how dire the situation was, how hopeless…she could see how some might give their lives to try and stop it, or how others would live in fear of the inevitable darkness the ancients would bring…

            She was startled out of her thoughts, when Buttercup suddenly lost her grip on the professor's arm, collapsing to the ground.  As they looked over at her in shock, she weakly sat back up and said, "Ughh…Professor, I…I dunno if…if I can keep this up…"

            "You have to," the professor said, clenching his teeth slightly as he stayed on his feet.  "Think to yourself, 'I'm strong, I can do anything', all right?"

            "I am," Buttercup said, panting and getting back up, but she still had difficulty…every muscle ached, and she didn't want to admit it, but it felt like her strength was slowly slipping, every second.  She just wanted to rest, she didn't care if she had to go to the hospital or anything, she just wanted to feel stronger again.  _I've never felt this weak before, _she thought.  _Hurts…so bad…_

            Blossom flew over and tried to pick her up, "Listen, we'll get you to safety, but then I need to come right back here and…"

            "…and what?" a voice interrupted, familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.  Everyone looked towards the doorway ahead of them, in total disbelief at what they saw.  Blossom and Buttercup were both speechless, and the Professor just stared in shock.  It was Bubbles, but she was different, horribly altered…the professor knew instantly what it was.  _She lost control of the essence, _he thought.  _Bubbles…oh no…_

            "Professor," Bubbles said, still speaking in a tandem of her own voice and Ulyaoth's, "I'm surprised to see you alive.  News of your death were exaggerated, but they served Ulyaoth's purpose, so I'm grateful anyway."

            "What…happened to you…?" Buttercup managed to say.

            Giving a small smile, Bubbles said, "My eyes have been opened, that's what.  I was blind to not have seen it before, the greatness of my master, Ulyaoth.  I was a fool to think mere mortals such as yourselves could stop his will.  But now…"  She swept her hands to the sides in a wide gesture, "…his coming shall bring a new age of darkness to this world, and there is no one who can stop it."

            "Wrong," Blossom said with force that she truly didn't feel.  "We can stop it…"

            Bubbles laughed and said, "You?  Please…your power is as nothing to the might of Ulyaoth!  He would crush you where you stand, or perhaps make you his slaves…or maybe just torture you for the rest of your infinitesimal life."  She frowned and continued with more seriousness, "I only need one thing now to bring my master into this world…where is the essence of Mantorok?"

            "We don't know," the professor shouted back, "and even if we did, we wouldn't tell you!"

            Shaking her head, a glow of energy built up around both of her outstretched arms as she said, "Still clinging to the last bit of hope, are you?  You must have heard _something _during your captivity, Professor.  Perhaps I can change your mind…"  With that, she lifted her arms, and bolts of bright blue electricity blasted out of them, striking Buttercup in the chest.  She cried out in pain…the electricity didn't fade, but stayed constant, like a physical spike through the center of her body, lifting her into the air…

            "Stop it!" Blossom shrieked.  "Bubbles, don't do this!"

            Ignoring her, Bubbles stared at the horrified Professor and said, "You have five seconds to decide…four…"

*          *            *

            Ireseth hurried into the ceremony chamber, a wide room lined with pillars and set with a circle of candles…at the center, the essence of Mantorok waited for him, as did several other Cabal members.  Noticing his approach, one of them said, "My lord, there is…there is news of the intruders nearing us…"

            "They won't find us in time," Ireseth told him.  "We'll have the powers of Mantorok's essence released soon enough, and none of them will be able to stand up against our power."

            "But my lord…" another one protested.

            "Silence!" Ireseth shouted, stepping up to the pedestal holding the essence.  "We must begin at once.  Return to the halls, and have everyone guard the passageways to this chamber with their lives.  Let no one approach, be they man or beast, understood?"

            Nodding quickly, all of the Cabal members left the chamber immediately.  Ireseth smiled and stared at the essence, one of Mantorok's many hearts, still beating with life, with power…he spoke aloud, "The blood of the sacrifices has been spilled, their lives given to your greatness, so that your power may be whole once again.  Now, let that power be transferred to me…"  He spread his arms, and started to chant, "_Pargon…tier…pargon…pargon…redgormor…pargon…_"

*          *            *

            "…four…th—…" Bubbles continued, but then suddenly broke off from what she was saying, swiveling her head to face another direction.  The bolts of electricity from her arms stopped, releasing Buttercup and dropping her to the ground.  Blossom rushed over to her to see if she was all right, but kept her eyes on Bubbles, who now looked surprised.

            The professor took a step closer and said, "Bubbles?"

            Bubbles didn't even notice him…she whispered, "…Mantorok…" and suddenly flew off in the direction she was looking with incredible speed.  She disappeared through the passageway ahead of her and was gone in the blink of an eye.

            "Mantorok?" the professor said to himself, then gasped, "Oh no…"

            "What is it?" Blossom asked.  "What's wrong?"

            The professor looked over at her and said, "Ireseth…he must be completing the last stages of unlocking the essence.  Bubbles felt it, and is heading for it now.  If she gets to it…"

            "No, we have to stop her!" Blossom exclaimed.  "Buttercup, will you be all right to…" She trailed off as she looked back at Buttercup in her arms…she was tensed up, and starting to glow a faint green color.  "…Buttercup?"

            "…Blossom…" Buttercup grunted, as the green glow started to get brighter, "…s-so…weak…h-help me…"

            Blossom looked at her open-mouthed, and was about to lift her up so she could take her to safety, when the Professor's hand came down on her shoulder, saying, "We need to get out of here, now…"

            "But…Buttercup…"

            Fighting a tear, the professor said, "Remember what I said before in the journal?  Buttercup's strength is keeping Xel'lotath's essence contained.  We need to get out of here, now…"

            "No!" Blossom shouted.  "I can't leave…"

            "Blossom, now!  Please!" the professor insisted, "There's no time!"

            Blossom gave Buttercup another glance, and biting her lip, released her, backing up and following the professor, who was now making his way to a door at the other end of the room.  He was limping, but still managed to get there on his own.  Buttercup was already starting to flare up, surrounded by a green flame, and used the last of her strength to cry out, "No, _please…_don't…don't let them…take…"

            Clenching his eyes shut as they left the room, the professor whispered, "I'm so sorry…"  They both disappeared from view as the flare around Buttercup reached its brightest point and began to fade back out again.  Buttercup sat back up, then rose into the air limply, her head and limbs hanging almost like a puppet's.  Her skin looked almost as though it was shriveled and rotting, her body becoming frail and useless, but her eyes shined a brilliant green, giving hint to a greater power than her form suggested.  Buttercup only looked briefly in the direction the professor and Blossom had left, before she let her eyes follow Bubbles' path…she spoke in a cacophony of voices, only one of which was her own, "The essence will be mine…"  She drifted backwards a few feet, the air behind her distorting strangely as though reality itself were being twisted, and in the next moment, she had vanished entirely.

*          *            *

            The Professor didn't stop until he was a safe distance from the room they had left, and Blossom stopped next to him, staring back the way they came.  "Buttercup…is she…she's…"

            "I'm sorry," the professor nodded.  "It's all my fault…I thought…I thought you girls would be all right, but…but no, I should never have told you where I was going…I shouldn't have let you come here…"

            Blossom continued to stare for a few moments longer, then closed her and said, "Professor, go."

            "What?" he replied.

            "If I remember right, this way will take you back to the surface," she said.  "You can make it.  Go, just get out of here…I'm staying."

            "Blossom, don't you realize what will happen?" the professor told her.  "Don't you realize that if we can't stop…"

            Blossom swiveled to face him, opening her now tear-filled eyes, "Of _course _I know!  But I also know that…that you're the most important thing in the world to me…and that you know more about this than I do…so if…if anyone needs to survive this…it's you…all right?  Just go…I'll be fine…"  The professor was about to protest, but fell silent as he saw it in her eyes.  Blossom _did _know how hopeless it would be, and in that moment, he understood what was going to happen.  Blossom reached over, handing the Tome of Eternal Darkness over to him, adding, "Take this…you'll need it more than I will…"

            The professor slowly nodded, taking the Tome from her, and backed out of the passageway, never leaving eye contact with her until the passageway finally took a bend, forcing them out of sight.  Blossom watched him go, then stared down at her hands.  She thought _It really is over, isn't it?  One of them will get the essence of Mantorok…the ancients have already won.  There's nothing we can do to stop it now…nothing…_         She closed her eyes again, hanging her head and letting a few tears escape for humanity.  She heard the voice deep within her, Chattur'gha, waiting for his release, held only at bay by the remains of Blossom's crushed spirit.  It was pointless to fight it now…she knew that the darkness was coming anyway, it was only a matter of time.  She took one last breath, and surrendered to Chattur'gha.

            Red flames flared up around her, obscuring her long enough for the task to be completed.  When it finally faded, Blossom raised her head, opening her eyes to reveal nothing but a burning red light surrounded by darkness.  Parts of her skin were ripped free, the muscle underneath exposed and throbbing with power.  She clenched her fists and glared off in the direction where she now sensed Mantorok's power as well, and flew towards it in a straight line, arms outstretched.  Nothing could withstand her pure, raw strength now, and even the nearly indestructible walls of the temple did nothing to slow her down…

*          *            *

            The professor traveled a bit further before slumping against the wall, letting tears fall for his daughters…Bubbles and Buttercup had both been claimed by the old ones, and he could see Blossom giving into hopelessness, which meant that she wouldn't be far behind.  _How could I have let this happen? _he thought.  _There must be some way to save them…something I can do to prevent the Eternal Darkness…_

            He looked down at the Tome, and despite all that he had seen this evening, despite everything that had come to pass, he suddenly felt a spark of hope, but he didn't know why.  _What was it? _he thought.  It was something he had read, something long ago…something about Mantorok.  Something about this Tome…

            _There's a way, _he realized.  _There's a way that humanity can be saved.  I have to figure out what it is, quickly, before it's too late…I only hope it's not too late already…  _He pulled his strength together and started heading back into the temple, opening the tome and looking through it quickly as he went.  With all efforts from both the ancients and the Cabal centered on Mantorok's essence, he figured he'd have no opposition, so he hurried as fast as he could in his condition.  Everything relied on him now, and he would likely only have one chance at this…

**_TO BE CONTINUED…_**


	11. Chapter 11

**CHAPTER 11**

            "_…pargon…Mantorok…pargon…_"

            Ireseth completed the fourth utterance of the spell…already, the essence of Mantorok was reacting where it sat on the pedestal, its blackened heart shape beating faster.  He smiled and prepared for the next casting, thinking, _It's really happening…only a few more times, and the Cabal's destiny will be fulfilled.  The powers of the old ones will soon be mine!_

            As he opened his mouth to speak the phrases again, however, something felt different…he felt as though he was being watched, but a quick glance around told him he was alone.  Still, he couldn't shake the feeling.  _There's no one here, _he told himself.  _Hurry now, and unlock the power before…_

            Movement out of the corner of his eye snapped him out of his thoughts.  He turned to face the wall, and saw something that made him stare in shocked wonderment.  The inscriptions on that portion of the wall were twisting, moving together and rearranging themselves into a different shape.  As he watched, it seemed to take a small, humanoid form, and even formed a pair of eyes.  The figure blinked a few times before reaching out from the wall…it lifted away from the surface, gaining substance, and stepped right out of the inscriptions as surely as if it were walking into the room through a door.

            Buttercup finished her emergence from the wall, fixing a glare on Ireseth and speaking to him, "The essence of Mantorok is mine, mortal.  Do not oppose the will of Xel'lotath."

            "No!" Ireseth insisted, retreating closer to the essence.  "I have worked too long for this, me and my kind.  The Cabal has spanned the globe for lifetimes, searching for it, and now that it belongs to us, we won't give it up!  _I _won't give it up!"

            Focusing on him, Buttercup continued to stare, unblinking, as though considering…finally, she said, "You wish to know the power, the might of the ancients, that which is unattainable to mortals?  You wish to know what it is to be an ancient yourself?  So be it…"  Her eyes glowed a brighter green, and as Ireseth stared back into them, he could see it…everything was revealed to him in an instant.  His mind was flooded with memories of the past, images of things to come, and the very thoughts of the ancients, brooding upon things too dark for the mortal mind to contemplate, seething with emotions beyond mortal experience, plotting and scheming a thousand horrible fates at once.  Ireseth cried out, the true horror of the old ones settling on his soul and crushing it in a single beat of his heart…but it did not beat again after that, for it could not bear the darkness it had been shown.  He collapsed to the ground, his eyes locked open forever in a frozen state of raw fear.  Buttercup allowed herself a small smile at this sight before turning her attention away from his now lifeless body and back to Mantorok's essence, now hers for the taking.

            Before she could move, though, a blue barrier of energy erected itself between her and it.  Looking around in sudden bewilderment, she saw that the barrier extended out, surrounding her completely, and as she expected, she caught sight of Bubbles on the other side of it, her arms outstretched, undoubtedly the one generating the barrier with her own power.

            Buttercup frowned at her and focused on the energies of the magical field…it shattered like glass into a hundred tiny shards; these shards did not fall to the ground, but instead, they hovered in place, their sharpest edges turning to face Bubbles before all of them flew towards her together.  The energies ripped across her, forcing her to the ground, where she panted and tried to regain her strength.  Buttercup laughed, and said, "Your power pales in comparison to mine.  You were a fool to think your master could help you here, that _anyone _could oppose the power of Xel'lotath…"

            A crash from the wall alerted them both…Buttercup barely had enough time to start to turn towards the noise before the form of Blossom rammed into her shoulder-first.  The impact knocked her away from the pedestal, where she slammed against the wall, cringing.  Blossom, on the other hand, hovered in place and spoke up, her voice layered in unison with that of Chattur'gha, "Only a taste of the pain that you will feel once my master enters this world."

            She turned away and stared flying for Mantorok's essence, but was intersected by beams of electrical energy, emerging from Bubbles' eyes…she picked herself up off the ground as she continued to fire the energy, which held Blossom in place with her teeth gritting against the onslaught.  Bubbles slowly edged closer to the essence, keeping the beams locked onto Blossom.  Before she could make it, though, Buttercup pulled herself away from the wall and gestured once with one of her arms, an invisible force impacting into Bubbles and knocking her away.

            Blossom was now free of the beam, but she stayed in place, keeping an eye on Bubbles to be sure that she didn't attack again, and on Buttercup to make sure she didn't try to approach the essence herself.  Bubbles, in turn, watched the other two back, as did Buttercup…the three hovered around the pedestal from a distance, as each thought furiously to try and decide what to do next.

            "Enough of this!" Bubbles shouted, and raised her arms.  The ground along the edge of the chamber began to break up, and creatures of unimaginable horror began clawing their way to the surface, climbing out from the ground and into the room.  Blossom and Buttercup followed suit, their own minions heeding their calls.  Even as they did this, none of them turned an eye away from the prize for too long, the essence, which sat awaiting its new master, whoever it may be…

*          *            *

            _Yes, perfect, _the professor thought as he flipped through the pages of the Tome.  _The key is Mantorok…he who watches over the ancients, and he who can be their ultimate undoing.  The powers of each of the three may be able to defeat one another, but it is mantorok's power that can silence them all…_

He found it on the next pages, the way with which to put an end to all of this.  But more than anything, he just hoped that he could get close enough to _use _this knowledge, and that he wasn't already too late.  Even know, he knew that the girls, under the ancients' influence, would be fighting over the essence, and if but one of them managed to get a hold of it, it would all be over.

            The solution to this problem seemed to jump out from the pages at him as well.  In fact, looking at it, it was the _perfect _solution.  Was it luck, or his own intuition that guided him to these pages, he wondered…but either way, he was willing to accept it.  He was still moving down the hallway, and knew from the sounds of conflict in the distance that he was drawing nearer to its source, so he decided to start now.  He read from the page as he moved forward, "_Narokath, Redgormor, Mantorok…_"

*          *            *

            It was chaos, but it was also a glimpse of what was yet to come.  The summoned abominations battled one another across the wide chamber, trying to secure the essence for their masters.  Twisted corpses, giant lumbering three-headed beasts, smaller and quicker clawed creatures, monstrous and horrifying entities…as some were cut down in combat, more arrived to take their place, but even so, their numbers were starting to thin out from their struggles.

            The girls themselves fought in the air above it all.  Buttercup, stretching forth with her power, surrounded Bubbles in a myriad of images, duplicates of herself, causing her a moment's confusion, which was all that was needed to strike.  Though they were images, each struck as though they were real, and Bubbles was knocked away from the fray, back into the chaos along the sides.

            Before Buttercup could even turn to face the essence, however, Blossom unleashed a beam of raw destructive energy from her hand towards her.  She spotted it and dodged to one side, but it grazed her anyway, throwing her off-balance and forcing her away from the pedestal.  The beam, in the meantime, impacted against the chamber wall with such force that it caused the stone to crack.

            Blossom took advantage of the opening and made a dash for the essence, but was engulfed a moment later by a miniature whirlwind, magically generated.  It grabbed and spun her around, finally slamming her into the ground.  Bubbles smiled and ended the spell, dissipating the wind, although she had to once again take a defensive position against Buttercup, who was recovering from her own hit.

            So absorbed in their conflict were they, that they failed to notice a lone figure moving through the chaos, shrouded from all their senses by a cloak of magic.  It moved silently, beyond sight and sound, parting its way safely through the conflict and edging closer to the center of the chamber.  Though the figure's presence went unnoticed, they _did _notice when a ring of seven purple runes abruptly surrounded the pedestal, and the voice of Mantorok whispered into the air…

            [_…bankorok, pargon, redgormor, pargon, pargon, Mantorok, pargon…_]

            Sensing something was wrong, all three of the girls ceased fighting at once and flew towards the pedestal together…but it was already too late.  A purple field now completely surrounded it, blocking them off from the essence, and within the field stood the professor, his invisibility cloak expiring.  He shook his head and said, "I won't let you take it, girls.  I'll do what I have to in order to protect it."

            "Then you'll die," Blossom growled, slamming a punch against the shield.  It held up against the attack, and all three of them started pounding at it with their fists.  The shield sparked with each attack, and the professor knew that it wouldn't last long.  Hoping it would be long enough, he decided to begin now, while the girls were in the proper position.

            Looking down at the Tome, he laid his hand upon the essence of Mantorok.  Horrible visions flashed through his mind from its poisonous touch, the thoughts of Mantorok beginning to whisper in his head, but he did his best to ignore them and focus on the spell he needed to cast.  He read it aloud quickly, "_Pargon, bankorok, pargon, pargon, aretak, pargon, pargon, Mantorok, pargon!_"

            The girls abruptly froze in place, and then each of them arched their backs, giving cries of pain.  Energies swirled around them, coalescing at their chests, and slowly, they emerged…each of the essences of Chattur'gha, Ulyaoth, and Xel'lotath, their power bound by Mantorok's, were separated from the girls, being pulled out into mid-air and held in place.  What remained of the summoned creatures in the room began to waver and crumble into dust, their links to the power that was feeding them having been severed.  Once the essences were completely pulled free, the girls fell out of the air, and collapsed to the ground.

            Now the artifacts each hovered in the air, each of them exactly as he had remembered seeing them long ago…the strange, hovering statuettes that served as the focus of their essences.  In such close proximity to all four of them, he heard their voices shouting in his mind, and the whispers of their thoughts…it was overwhelming, and would surely drive him mad in moments if he didn't silence them quickly.  He clenched his eyes shut, and shouted above the cacophony, "_ANTORBOK, REDGORMOR, MANTOROK!!_"

            Tendrils of purple energy leapt out from the essence of Mantorok, targeting each of the other essences, now so fragile due to their powers being bound.  As the electric-like bolts struck the center of the statues, they shattered into pieces.  Each of the fragments caught fire as the spread out from the center, and disintegrated into the air.  The task finally done, the professor removed his hand from the essence of Mantorok and fell to his knees on the ground, panting.  The Tome fell out of his weakened hands, landing on the ground.  The remaining essence, in the meantime, simply faded from existence, its power ultimately spent.

            _I did it, _he thought.  _I've destroyed the old one's essences, the Earthly links to their power.  The world will be safe…for now, at least._  He opened his eyes and looked across the room…compared to the chaos that was present mere moments ago, it seemed so quiet now.  Not an eerie calm, but more peaceful than that.  There were no sign of the horrors that were fighting, either; it was just him and the…

            "Girls!" the professor said in shock, looking around and seeing where each of them had landed.  He could see that their appearances had returned to normal, no longer showing sign of the twisted influence the ancients formerly had over them.  But they were lying still, unmoving, and it dawned on the professor that they may not be able to live without the essences, something that was inside them their entire lives…

            Movement caught his eye, and he watched as Bubbles stirred, her eyes opening slightly…she groaned, "Ughhh…wh-what…"

            "Bubbles!" the professor exclaimed, overjoyed…before he could rise to his feet, he saw the other girls starting to move as well.  Buttercup was picking herself up off the ground where she had been lying face-first, and coughed.  Blossom sat up and rubbed her head, looking just as disoriented as the others did.

            "Is it…is it over…?" Blossom managed to ask.

            "Yes, Blossom," the professor said, walking over and scooping up each of them into his arms.  "We're safe now…do you remember anything?"

            Buttercup frowned a little as she tried to think, and said, "Some of it…I mean, it was…it was almost like a dream…"

            "Or a nightmare," Bubbles agreed.

            Recalling the Cabal, and the details of the old ones, Blossom said, "Ireseth…the essence…?"

            The professor looked over towards Ireseth's body, lying crumpled on the ground not far from the pedestal, and said, "The Cabal is no more.  And the essence…it's gone now.  All of the essences are gone, including the ones you carried inside you."

            Bubbles felt her chest, and said, "It's gone?"

            Following suit, Buttercup shrugged a little and said, "I'm not gonna miss it, are you?"

            "Definitely not," Blossom said, shaking her head.  "So, now what happens?"

            "Now that they've been destroyed," the professor told them, "the ancients no longer have any ties to our world.  They'll be trapped forever in their dimensions, never to plague mankind again."  He looked over to where the Tome of Eternal Darkness lay next to the pedestal and said, "All that remains now is their memory.  Let's hope that it stays that way."

            Bubbles nodded, then yawned, stretching a bit before saying, "Why am I so tired…?"

            "All that fighting you did," the professor explained, then glanced at his watch.  "Plus, it's past your bedtimes…I'd better get the three of you home."  He started walking towards one of the doors leading out of the chamber, to head in the direction of the temple's exit.

            Buttercup thought for a second before asking, "Professor…are we going to tell anyone about all this?  I mean, would they even believe us?"

            "I don't know…" he said, giving it some thought.  _I wouldn't have believed it myself, had it not happened to us firsthand.  Mankind wasn't meant to see what lies beyond the veil of our reality…the Cabal was a perfect example of the misuse of this knowledge…so perhaps there are certain things that are best left unspoken.  Even so, we'll carry these memories the rest of our lives, and I only hope that human eyes never again will be forced to see such terrors…_

*          *            *

            Deep within a distant jungle, beyond the eyes of mankind, inside a temple long forgotten, Mantorok lay in his tomb, bound forever by ancient magics and cursed to perish slowly for eons as he waited for his captors to spread Eternal Darkness over the human world.  And yet, he still minded his ages-old task of watching over the ancients, hearing their voices and listening to their schemes.  Where hope had been lost, he would put his own plans into motion, exerting a subtle influence over mortals to further his own ends.  Through his guidance, the essences of Chattur'gha, Ulyaoth, and Xel'lotath were kept separated, and their secrets guarded, until he felt the time was right.  Thus, the fates of the few who knew would intertwine, and the essences would find their way to a single mortal, who would shield them within shells of pure good.  But even so, it only took a small tampering of fate to ensure that the beings were not only pure good, but extraordinarily powerful as well.  Once all was set, his own essence was offered up…it was no mistake that it would find its way into the clutches of those humans who knew only greed, who wanted his power alone.  But it had gone as intended, the beings of good drawing together in an effort to protect their creator, something that would have been impossible without their extraordinary power he made sure they obtained, and this lured them in for the final part of his plan.  It was Mantorok who gave them the Tome, who allowed their essences to break through the protections that held them, for the end purpose of bringing all three together, close enough where he could destroy them, to sever the ancients' connections to this world once and for all.  They would be trapped now, the three, secluded in their dimensions for eternity, never to spread the darkness again.

            All that remained now was Mantorok, the corpse god, festering forever in his tomb…plotting…

**_THE END_**


End file.
